Eric Alterman is a CUNY Distinguished Professor of English at Brooklyn College and an author, most recently of We Are Not One: A History of America’s Fight Over Israel.
Eric Alterman
By Eric Alterman
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Opinion Banning Al Jazeera moves Israel one step closer to dictatorship
Defenders of Israel love to call it the Middle East's only democracy. But democracies don't censor the press
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Opinion Biden is preparing to defy Israel in wartime — something no president has done since Eisenhower
Many presidents have yearned to push back on Israel. Biden is actually doing it.
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Culture Dylan’s latest album comes at a time when we need it most
The Forward, a Jewish publication, asks me a question: “Is ‘Rough and Rowdy Ways’ Bob Dylan’s best album since “Blood on the Tracks?” As a Jew, I can imagine only one possible answer: “yes and no.” Musically, it’s not even close. “Desire” has more beautiful melodies, tighter lyrics and far better hooks. I also think,…
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Opinion How Rabbi Max Ticktin Changed My Life With ‘Yes But’ Torah Scholarship
One day in mid-June, I borrowed a car from my dad and drove my daughter, now 18, to the Jewish Reform Movement’s Camp Eisner in the Berkshires where she is spending the summer as a lifeguard/counselor, having spent all but one of the past eight summers there as a camper. Afterward, I continued on towards…
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Opinion Hysterical ‘Anti-Semitic’ Claim Backfires
The decision in late December by Rachel Kleinfeld, founder of the Truman National Security Project, a defense-oriented Democratic think tank, to sever publicly all ties with former fellow and ex-AIPAC spokesman, Josh Block, brought to an end what was an ugly episode in Washington’s Israel-focused policy community. Block had orchestrated a sloppy smear campaign against…
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Opinion Israel Turning Into Theocracy
It is becoming increasingly obvious that a break between Israel and Diaspora Jewry, particularly its American variety, is fast approaching. The reason for this is that Israel is slowly but inexorably turning into a conservative theocracy while the Diaspora is largely dedicated to liberal democracy. The strategy of the “pro-Israel” camp among American Jewish organizations…
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Opinion Pernicious Attempt To Brand Protest as Anti-Semitic
Is the Jewish congressional representative from heavily Jewish Long Island, Steve Israel, “standing with those calling for the killing of Jews”? Does the Jewish representative from heavily Jewish Florida, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, “agree with various calls for Jews to be ‘run out of the country’ and to oppose and ‘destroy’ the State of Israel”? Sean…
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Opinion To Test Beliefs, Listen to the Other Guy’s
When did your dad become a Republican?” That was the question with which my 13-year-old daughter dutifully reported she had been greeted the morning after parents’ night at her school. What had I done to deserve this? Well, the previous evening I took a look at the proposed reading list, which leaned, believe it or…
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Fast Forward USC cancels commencement speech from Muslim valedictorian after she shared link to anti-Israel website
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Fast Forward 2 House members lead the charge to oust the speaker. Both have been accused of trafficking in antisemitism.
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Opinion The head of the largest Christian Zionist organization is no friend to Israel — he wants an apocalypse there
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Opinion USC: Don’t blame Jews for canceling your valedictorian
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News Why did this Mormon drive 10 hours to buy whiskey? To help out a Jewish friend for Passover
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News 100+ arrested in day of unrest and mass protest at Columbia U over Gaza and Israel
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Yiddish ווידעאָ: פֿאַר וואָס מײַן בוך וועגן מײַן אייגענעם יציאת־מצרים וועט זײַן אויף ייִדישVideo: Why my book about my own ‘Exodus’ from the Hasidic community will be in Yiddish
שפֿרה־קריינדל לאָווען האָפֿט אַז איר בוך וועט העלפֿן חסידים וואָס האָבן מורא צו מאַכן דעם איבערגאַנג
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Fast Forward Police arrest son of prominent DC-area rabbi after alleged altercation with protesters outside Israeli Embassy
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