Two tractors sat at the edges of Ginot Aryeh, slated to be the first of many makeshift, barely-populated West Bank settler outposts soon to be removed in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s “disengagement plan.” Set up in a rocky field not far from its “mother” settlement of Ofra, the outpost has a population of about 30…
The elusive search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and mounting questions about pre-war intelligence are prompting some liberal supporters of military intervention in Iraq to reassess their positions. Kenneth Pollack, a former CIA analyst and National Security Council official in the Clinton administration who wrote an influential book in 2002 advocating military action…
A leading ultra-Orthodox organization has launched a campaign to shift attention from a controversial book on Jewish superiority, choosing instead to attack the Forward’s reporting on it. Agudath Israel of America has refused to condemn the book by Rabbi Saadya Grama, published in Hebrew under the title “Romemut Yisrael Ufarashat Hagalut,” which can be translated…
When Leonard Nimoy’s book of photography, “Shekhina,” was published in 2002, it created a ruckus. His depiction of alluringly glamorous women — some wearing tefillin in all their naked glory — as the essence of the feminine manifestation of God struck some as revolutionary and others as salacious. The book sold well, and even inspired…
TEL AVIV — Under opposition pressure to spell out his still-murky “unilateral” plans on the Palestinian front, Prime Minister Sharon appeared before the Knesset last Monday and did just the opposite. Gone were the phrases that had caused such a stir last month, such as “dismantling outposts” and “unilateral withdrawal.” Instead, he spoke vaguely of…
Holly Lebowitz Rossi is a freelance writer in Arlington, Mass. Killing the Buddha: A Heretic’s Bible By Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet Free Press, 304 pages, $25. * * *| In the beginning there was the Bible. It is a blueprint for human experience and “the book waiting for a sweaty-palmed rendezvous in every motel…
JEFFERSON, Iowa — In a machine shed on a farm here, standing in front of a large American flag and a green and yellow tractor, Rep. Richard Gephardt was betting his political career on the idea that family farmers are being hurt by free trade. “Our farmers can compete with anyone in the world, if…
I was browsing the other day in the letters-to-the-editor section of an old issue of a magazine called First Things, an intellectual monthly edited by Richard John Neuhaus, a leading Catholic thinker and strong supporter of Israel. Taking Neuhaus to task for this support was a letter that commented on “the tragedy of a displaced…
WASHINGTON — In a historic about-face in the debate over federalism, conservatives are increasingly attempting to curtail states’ rights over social issuues through congressional legislation and the federal courts, while liberals are arguing for local control on several fronts. This shift was on full display after the Massachusetts Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of…
Professor Berel Lang writes from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.: “Perhaps you would give a couple of paragraphs to the misconception (and the mistranslation) of the Sixth Commandment [in Exodus 20:13], ‘You shall not murder,’ as ‘You shall not kill.’ The original Hebrew, lo tirtsah., is very clear, since the verb ratsah. means ‘murder,’ not…
Two of Washington’s most famed neoconservatives — David Frum and Richard Perle — have issued a stinging critique of America’s fight against terrorism and are urging more aggressive action. In their new book, “An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror” (Random House), Frum and Perle call for universal biometric fingerprinting, immediate…
