Posts Tagged ‘Tom Friedman’
THE STEEL THREAD
An economist at Tel Aviv University and an ancient king reveal much about the outcome of the war Israel is waging against Iran’s proxies, and so Iran itself. On Monday, Tom Friedman in The New York Times (“What I’m Thinking About on the First Anniversary of the War”) cited the economist Dan Ben-David of Tel…
Read MoreISRAEL’S OTHER NEXT STEPS
Israel’s attack on an Iranian military base outside Shiraz necessitated a new approach to today’s post I completed yesterday. Then again, it didn’t. Regarding Israel’s response to Iran’s missile attack, I cited the 19th-century French novelist Eugène Sue writing in Memoirs of Matilda: “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” I also referred to New York Times columnist Tom…
Read MoreTRUMPTY DUMPTY
Two days after the midterm election, Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post published a striking cover. It “formalized” the break—pun intended—between Murdoch and Donald Trump. Are America’s political winds shifting? The Post featured Trump’s head superimposed on a drawing of an egg-shaped man sitting on a brick wall. Headline: “TRUMPTY DUMPTY.” Subhead: “Don (who couldn’t build a wall) had a…
Read MoreWORDLE AND BETRAYAL 
Wordle, an online word game, offers insight into what drives Congressional leaders like Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy to betray this nation. Wordle players get six tries to guess a five-letter word. Feedback helps. Enter PLACE, and if E comes at the end of the mystery word, the letter shows up on a green tile.…
Read MoreINFORMED YET IGNORANT 
I recently read the novelist Saul Bellow’s nonfiction To Jerusalem and Back (1976). Bellow’s personal take on Jerusalem and Israel half-a-century ago is quite interesting. But what most fascinated me was a comment on another matter. Well before CNN, Fox and other cable news organizations, way before the internet, social media and podcasts, Bellow wrote, “We are informed…
Read MoreTHE SECOND CASUALTY OF WAR
If the first casualty of war is truth, a close second is certainty. Unfortunately, Americans often take a mechanical approach to problems. President Biden preaches that there’s nothing a united American people can’t do. If only. Witness the evacuation from Afghanistan. To date, we’ve flown out 105,000 Americans, Afghans and others. But come Biden’s August 31…
Read MoreSAVING SPEAKER RYAN
Tuesday night, following California’s primaries, Donald Trump explained his “America First” policies. In any global interaction—economic, military, political—he will put America’s interests first. But I suspect that a President Trump would make one exception. Germany (West Germany until unification) has been a friend of the United States since the end of World War Two. But…
Read MoreWHAT ARE AMERICA’S VALUES?
The Declaration of Independence enshrines in American consciousness life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But what makes Americans happy? And what if that which makes us happy causes other people—maybe millions of people—unhappiness? The answers to these questions reveal a lot about what we, as individuals and a nation, really value. In this light,…
Read MoreMR. MORSI
Egypt as a nation predates the United States by millennia. But when Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi lectures the U.S., he conveniently forgets that Egypt as a democracy is an infant. A week ago, Morsi told The New York Times that the U.S. should show greater respect for Arab values. “If you want to judge the…
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