Category: Palestine

Modern Zionism contradicts what we, in the West, claim as our fundamental political and social values. It does this by undermining the norms and standards we claim as the foundation of the modern democratic state.

July 1st came and went and Netanyahu made no formal statement regarding annexation. That left many journalists, politicians, activists, and others feeling abandoned to speculation. Declarations of support or opposition went forward accompanied by an air of uncertainty and the frustration of trying to second guess the objectives of those whose actions would determine the coming months. Palestinians living in the occupied territories slated for absorption would have scoffed cynically at…

At the United Nations back in October, many people expected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to drop a ‘bombshell’; a message that would shake up the status quo in Palestinian-Israeli relations. Restrained by the usual parties, Abbas’ message was no different than his usual, mealy-mouthed utterances that ‘we’re really not so thrilled about what’s happening’; that mock defiance and say nothing. It is no surprise that his popularity continues to drop at…

Sixty-Seven years after the end of World War II, a team of researchers and cameramen from the Anne Frank House in Holland showed up at the Capitol Lakes retirement center in Madison, Wisconsin to interview my father-in-law, Fritz Loewenstein. Fritz is the only known person still living who had been boyhood friends with Anne Frank’s “secret annex” companion, Peter van Pels (known in the Diary as Peter van Damm). The oral historical…