The Trump administration’s decision to scrap all future aid payments to the main agency helping Palestinian refugees marks a new – and most likely disastrous – chapter in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The US State Department said on Friday it...
Can’t We Just Leave Syria Alone?
Assad was supposed to be gone already. President Obama thought it would be just another “regime change” operation and perhaps Assad would end up like Saddam Hussein or Yanukovych. Or maybe even Gaddafi. But he was supposed to be gone. The US spent billions...
Forever War?: Lieutenant Alex and the Limits of American Courage
Alex should have never been asked to accomplish the impossible. But he was. We all were. Thing is, if anyone could have done it – "beat" the Taliban and brought home a win for the US of A – it’d have been my friend Alex. Sure, I’m biased. He was a star...
Basra Protests Turn Violent; 16 Killed in Iraq
Preventing Nuclear War: A National Campaign Emerges
A national collaborative grassroots coalition to abolish nuclear weapons is rapidly emerging in this country. The effort called "Back from the Brink: A Call to Prevent Nuclear War" started last fall after the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons...
Anti-Israelism and Anti-Semitism: The Invidious Conflation
I and others have warned that enactment of the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act now before Congress would threaten free speech and free inquiry on America’s college campuses and beyond. As I’ve explained, this bill incorporates a conception – a...
Gone Sailing!
I had originally intended to write a column this Labor Day weekend, but my doctor persuaded me to take off. Rest, he informed me, is good. I’ve never been a fan of rest, but I’m willing to be persuaded. In the meantime, check out this 2014 Labor Day missive from the...
Centrist Think Tanks Ponder Populism’s Rise, but Hesitate To Change
The two most powerful think tanks in Washington, representing center-left and center-right political elites, have responded to the populist shocks of the 2016 presidential election by trying to reposition themselves and the Democratic and Republican Parties as more...


