More in ‘Jeffrey Goldberg’

Predictably, New Republic literary editor Leon Wieseltier’s broadside against blogger Andrew Sullivan over Israel has prompted lots and lots (and lots) of responses, including from Sullivan himself. They all seem to agree with the following propositions: Wieseltier may not explicitly call Sullivan an anti-Semite, but that is the unavoidable implication of his argument (and, indeed, ...

• The Russian state nuclear company said the reactor it built in Bushehr, Iran, will be up-and-running by the end of the year. [Haaretz]
• Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her E.U. counterpart said they would continue to try to impose upped sanctions on the Islamic Republic. [Haaretz]
• Elliott Abrams, who was George W. ...

Iraq will reportedly demand that Israel pay reparations for bombing its nuclear reactor at Osirak in 1981. A member of the Iraqi parliament told a local paper that his country will lodge its claim with the United Nations and cite a contemporaneous resolution that strongly condemned Israel’s air strike. (The raid is retrospectively credited with ...

• A controversial bill to require Knesset members to swear loyalty to “the State of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist, democratic state” came up for debate today. The legislation is supported by Avigdor Lieberman’s right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party. [JPost]
• Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak reportedly insisted to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that East Jerusalem be ...

A man who was a known terrorist and, it turned out, had explosives lining his underwear was able to board an American plane headed from Amsterdam to Detroit, provoking, among other things, much questioning over how to prevent future such errors. One prominent idea? In the Tweeted words of comedian Bill Maher, “just ask ‘what ...

• The Israeli Supreme Court ordered a West Bank highway to be opened to most Palestinian drivers. [NYT]
• A Lakewood, New Jersey, Orthodox man is the target of a $200 million fraud lawsuit, according to court papers. The plaintiffs are several Orthodox real estate investors who allege they were specifically targeted as part of an ...

Today in Tablet Magazine, watch and listen to a recording of “Eight Days of Hanukkah,” a song written by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) for the magazine. Contributor Jeffrey Goldberg explains the provenance of the song (Sen. Hatch, it seems, is a man of his word), and praises its lyrics as a rebellion against “the Adam ...

• A diplomat distanced the United States from the European Union’s statement advocating negotiations on Jerusalem. “We believe this is a final-status issue,” he said. [Ynet]
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu alleged that the Palestinians’ strategy is to delay negotiations indefinitely. He also warned that a failure to engage will result in no resolution. [Haaretz]
• One ...

MORE: Watch the “Eight Days of Hanukkah” video.
MORE: Download the “Eight Days of Hanukkah” MP3.
Ten years ago, I visited Orrin Hatch, the senior senator from Utah and a prominent member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on Capitol Hill. I was writing for The New York Times Magazine and Hatch was thinking ...

A bit of a brouhaha has erupted regarding Sarah Palin and the Jews. It seems that the former governor of Alaska went on television to promote her new book, Going Rogue, and was asked by Barbara Walters what she thought of Israel’s West Bank settlements. “I disagree with the Obama administration on that,” Palin replied. ...