Free Republic

At some point in his first or second year, the average undergraduate comes to a dreadful, shocking, thrilling, intoxicating realization: Everything I was taught to believe until now is a lie. We're not the good guys. We're the bad guys: the West, white people, my parents, whatever. Grasping this insight is the key to enlightenment, and enlightenment is the key to, among other things, pulling chicks. As time passes, most of us move on to a more balanced understanding of life. But that first rush of exhilaration at having pierced the veil, at being granted the power to see through...

When being anti-Israel is anti-Semitic Bernard Pinsky There has been much discussion and finger pointing about criticism of Israel, its actions and its policies, and Israel's defenders' claims that much of the criticism is based on anti-Semitism. Critics of Israel say they cannot speak out for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic. Defenders of Israel are concerned that anti-Semitism is the basis for the criticism in many cases. It is therefore important to know when in fact anti-Israel rhetoric is founded in, results from or itself creates anti-Semitism. 1. When the media prints every allegation against Israel, no matter how...

GENEVA - The United Nations Commission on Human Rights on Thursday condemned Israel's use of force against Palestinian civilians and called on Israel to stop building settlements in the occupied territories. The 53-member state body, at its annual session, easily adopted three resolutions on Israel presented by Arab countries. Advertisement The United States and Australia were alone in voting against both the resolution on settlements and one on the Golan Heights. Britain, Canada, Germany and Italy were among those joining the United States in voting against a text condemning Israel for use of force, including executions, and "continued systematic violations"...

October 2000, Place de la République in Paris: the first of what would become an endless series of ambiguous pro-Palestinian demonstrations welcomed the snake of anti-Semitism into its heart. “Death to the Jews” rang out loud and clear that day as policemen stood by, journalists watched with apparent indifference, and the mass of demonstrators thronged and thrust as demonstrators do. 8 March 2005, Place de la République: a thousand young toughs pierced the heart of a student demonstration and unleashed their rage…not against the police but against the “privileged classes” in their own age group—the protesting lycée students. Operating in...

Today, March 29, 2005 marks the three year anniversary of the battle of Jenin. If there is one incident that summarizes the war in the Middle East, and the way the terror war is fought in the media, this is it. On this three year anniversary, we have received permission from Natan Sharansky to run the section of his indispensable book The Case for Democracy, in which he relates what happened in Jenin, how it was reported, and why this is crucial to understanding the war we face. -- The Editors Jenin: The Big Lie Two years before the ICJ's...

Panel presents a program calling for a "One State Solution. Columbia University’s panel “One State or Two: Alternative Proposals for Middle East Peace” presented a biased, tendentious Israel-bashing program on Monday, January 31, that provided more heat than light. The very title was a dead giveaway: a one-state solution is widely understood to be a code word for the disappearance of the Jewish state and its replacement violently and/or demographically by an irredentist Palestinian majority. The evening, nonetheless, began on a largely sober note with an overview of the Islamic Middle Ages by Professor Mark Cohen of Princeton. He spoke...

I was not surprised that Likud members decided to reject Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate Gaza. Israelis have grown tired of retreat, and wiser with every evacuation. One would be hard-pressed to name a single benefit that has accrued to Israel with its continuingly trading land for war. They say that the definition of insanity is to repeat the same action but expect a different result. Israel gave up the entire Sinai desert to Egypt, only to receive an ice-cold peace and vitriolic anti-Semitism in return. Israel gave Yasser Arafat control of the major population centers of Gaza...

The World Social Forum (WSF) was established in 2000 as the anti-globalization movement's answer to the Davos World Economic Forum. WSF has held three annual gatherings in Brazil. This year's WSF meeting was held in Mumbai (Bombay), India. The movement has outlets in Europe, the Arab world, Latin America and – with its Mumbai success – Asia. The WSF worldwide apparatus fills a post-Soviet vacuum for a broad variety of causes. Causes that paid dearly to come to Mumbai included ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples, and victims of discrimination with legitimate grievances – for instance, Indian Dalits, Japanese Bunraku, Tibetan monks,...