Ezra Klein reacts to Peter Beinart’s essay on the decline of liberal Zionism with the following observation: [T]he real dividing line was not sympathy for the Palestinians or support for Israel, but whether you fundamentally understood Israel to be the most powerful country in the Middle East and the stronger party in the struggle with [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 397-10 May 15, 2010 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Spc. Denis D. Kisseloff, 45, of Saint Charles, Mo., died May 14 at Forward Operating Base Shank, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using [...]

Their statement on his essay: Peter Beinart has written what I hope will be a powerful wake-up call to the leadership of the American Jewish establishment. J Street shares Beinart’s deep concern over the consequences of the course that leadership has chosen: blind support of Israel ‘right-or-wrong’ and demonization and black-listing of those who disagree with Israeli policy. Beinart [...]

This is not a paragraph I ever expected my friend and former boss Peter Beinart to write: Morally, American Zionism is in a downward spiral. If the leaders of groups likeAIPAC and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations do not change course, they will wake up one day to find a younger, Orthodox-dominated, [...]

If my last post or my last piece didn’t impress you, sorry. Yesterday was an epically bad day, and today I’m trying to put it behind me by spending most of the day in transit, heading far out of the city. One of my many goals for the next three days is to blog as [...]

Spent time yesterday watching public remarks from President Karzai, Secretary Clinton and Gen. McChrystal. Had to put together a piece summing up deliverables from the week’s Karzai visit to Washington. The two that outshine the others are both described as “processes” by the Obama administration and the Karzai government: the “peace process” to offer the [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 392-10 May 13, 2010 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Sgt. Joshua D. Desforges, 23, of Ludlow, Mass., died May 12 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 391-10 May 13, 2010 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Sgt. Donald J. Lamar II, 23, of Fredericksburg, Va., died May 12 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 2nd [...]

I’m at the U.S. Institute of Peace, waiting for a program to begin that features President Karzai and Secretary Clinton. I’ve cleared two levels of security and made it to my seat. I have a fully charged laptop and I’m ready to do work. I think I have something like 70 minutes before anything — [...]

When I heard Sean Penn was going to be in a movie about the Plame Affair, I thought, “What an extraordinarily terrible and self-indulgent idea, practically guaranteed to make the entire episode appear trivial and frivolous and to ignite an unquenchable pan-ideological fire of ressentiment!” Judging by this clip from the film — thanks, TPM [...]