Attention to the Unseen

John Sipher writes: According to this year’s National Intelligence Worldwide Threat Assessment and Senate testimony by top-ranked intelligence officials, Americans can expect Vladimir Putin’s Russia to continue its efforts to aggravate social, political and racial tensions in the United States and among its allies. So, to best prepare for future Russian assaults, we should look to the past and study the mind-set of the Cold War K.G.B. — the intelligence service in which President Putin spent his formative years. The…

Read More Read More

  The Guardian reports: Jeremy Corbyn has finally thrown his party’s weight behind a second EU referendum, backing moves for a fresh poll with remain on the ballot paper if Labour should fail to get its own version of a Brexit deal passed this week. The decision to give the party’s backing to a second referendum comes after a concerted push by shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer and deputy leader Tom Watson, who fear any further delay could have led…

Read More Read More

Jeremy Corbyn’s stated preference is that the media should pay more attention to those Jews who claim that there isn’t a serious problem of antisemitism in the Labour Party than to those who say the opposite: If I were in CCHQ, my next PPB (and every other PPB) would just be this video pic.twitter.com/y2RN90BmGo — Robert Colvile (@rcolvile) February 23, 2019 The letter signed by 200 Jewish Labour Party members to which Corbyn referred in this Sky News interview, states:…

Read More Read More

Kenan Malik writes: For anti-Zionists like [the late historian Tony] Judt, “self-determination” in that piece of contested land that is Israel/Palestine should adhere to principles of civic, not ethnic, nationalism; that is, be the self-determination of the people, and only the people, who live there, whether Jews or Palestinians. This kind of anti-Zionism is very different from that which calls for the “destruction of the state of Israel”, usually (a not very veiled) code for the destruction of Jews. The…

Read More Read More

M.J. Rosenberg writes: One thing that should be said about Representative Ilhan Omar’s tweet about the power of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (more commonly known as AIPAC, or the “Israel lobby”) is that the hysterical reaction to it proved her main point: The power of AIPAC over members of Congress is literally awesome, although not in a good way. Has anyone ever seen so many members of Congress, of both parties, running to the microphones and sending out…

Read More Read More

Suzanne Moore writes: Splitters. Traitors. The People’s Front of Judea. I am quite enjoying the current shenanigans of those people who say they just can’t take it any more. Some are sick of Brexit. Some want a people’s vote. Some are disgusted at the acceptance of antisemitism. Some are probably terrible careerists out only for themselves, though this seems a rather unlikely way to do it. Some may be people you want to go to the pub with. Some you…

Read More Read More

The Guardian reports: Ian Austin has become the ninth MP to quit the Labour party this week, although he told his local newspaper he had no plans to join the Independent Group (TIG), founded earlier this week by some former colleagues and Tory defectors. The MP for Dudley North in the West Midlands has been disaffected with the party leadership for a couple of years and told the Express & Star newspaper there was a “culture of extremism, antisemitism and…

Read More Read More

Jamelle Bouie writes: Bernie Sanders’s most prominent message is economic, organized around a critique of capitalist inequality, an indictment of the ultrawealthy and a call for expansive new social programs. It helped propel him to a strong second in the 2016 Democratic primary campaign and has returned as the marquee message for his 2020 campaign, which he announced on Tuesday with a promise to “complete the revolution.” Unfortunately for his 2020 campaign, Sanders is less distinct on economic policy than…

Read More Read More