Politics & Society
Gender & Sexuality
Israeli Occupation and LGBT Rights: Inextricably Intertwined
Improving the lot of gays in Israel without addressing the suffering of Palestinians under Occupation is a palliative measure. The oppression facing Israeli minorities, whether they be LGBT or Israeli Palestinians derives from the same root: the original sin of racism and dispossession.
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Israel/Palestine
Pinkwashing, Brainwashing, and Queer-Palestinian solidarity
It is utterly impossible to truly be simultaneously queer and Zionist. The following has been said thousands of times, but it deserves to be repeated until it sinks in: a “Jewish and democratic state” is a horrific, racist contradiction in terms, especially considering upwards of twenty percent of Israel’s population who are not Jewish. By the same token, as long as the LGBT community in Israel struggles only for the rights of the LGBT community, showing near total disregard for other groups that are oppressed—arguably more oppressed than we—our struggle loses a great deal of its legitimacy.
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Gender & Sexuality
The Greater Context of the Pinkwashing Debate
While I can’t speak for all who charge Israel with pinkwashing, I think it’s fair to say that the aim of the pinkwashing critique is not LGBT Israelis, but rather Israeli state policy that uses members of our community and/or our interests to burnish its own international reputation. In this respect, the concern is how LGBT rights get taken up by the state as a marketing tool and are served up to an international audience as part of a national rebranding project that necessarily implicates geo-political, religious, and international relations that far exceed gay rights.
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US Politics
Introduction to a Special Section on America Beyond the 2012 Election
Amid the blitz of campaign commercials, presidential debates, and political punditry, it can be hard to imagine life beyond the upcoming election.
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Health
Why the Affordable Care Act Will Not Remedy the U.S. Health Crisis
Many liberals are describing the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold “Obamacare” as a resounding victory for the president and likely to contribute to his chances for re-election. I don’t see it that way.
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Spiritual Politics
The Gift Economy: A Model for Collaborative Community
Imagine walking into your local cafe or corner grocery, filling your basket with what you need, leaving behind what you can financially, and walking away with no formal exchange. Now imagine that this economic relationship works as well if not better than a formal market economy. Impossible? Not according to “gift economy” theorists and the courageous communities that make this sort of system work.
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War & Peace
Iran, Israel, and Obama
The mainstream media have frequently framed their discussions about U.S. and Israeli policy toward Iran as a debate between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about whether to strike Iran immediately or to wait to see if sanctions work. This narrative has set the framework for a march toward war by excluding from the discourse the nonviolent option: that we not use coercion to achieve our ends.
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Health
Drug Prohibition Is the Problem: Reflections from a Former Judge
Drug prohibition is the biggest failed policy in the history of our country. I know that is a strong statement, but once more people realize the unnecessary harms and disasters this policy has inflicted, they will surely start to agree.
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Israel/Palestine
Statism and Anti-Statism: Reflections on Israel’s Legitimacy Crisis
In today’s Israeli political culture, opposition to the state takes a wide variety of forms, ranging from principled anti-statism to rejection of the state in its current form on diverse grounds. A review of some of the recent turbulence can serve to highlight the breadth of this phenomenon, which has recently given rise to high-profile manifestations across the Israeli religious and political spectrum.
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War & Peace
Obeying a Higher Law: Making the Case Against Drone Warfare
Who has died or been wounded by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)? Who is being surveilled? Where might drones be used in the future? In this powerful book, Medea Benjamin shows that drones are no different from land mines or weapons fitted with depleted uranium: they are extremely unsafe for civilians and they do not, in fact, differentiate between “noncombatants” and “combatants.”
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Politics & Society
Why the Witch-Hunt Against Gertrude Stein?
Please read the Editor’s Note about this article, and click here to see a list of books on or by Gertrude Stein. In 1934, Gertrude Stein was invited to the White House to have tea with Eleanor Roosevelt. Stein was on …
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US Politics
Bipartisan Congressional Efforts to Prevent Israeli-Palestinian Peace
Last month, the Democratic Party aligned with the Republican Party to pass a dangerous piece of legislation that actually undermines the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. This legislation calls to dramatically expand U.S. military aid to Israel while keeping Israel dependent upon the United States. United States military aid to Israel already exceeds the monetary value of all foreign aid programs to sub-Saharan Africa combined, but Congress has voted to revamp it nonetheless.
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Justice & Prisons
Military Madness and PFC Manning
Webs of blinding irony are being spun around Private First Class Manning, obscuring the military’s methodical denial of Manning’s constitutionally guaranteed right to a fair trial.
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US Politics
The Prerequisite for Real Change: Amending the Constitution and Getting Money Out of Politics
Prelude It has been clear for decades that there is an ongoing erosion of the ability and power of our citizenry to govern itself. I am an old and proud sixties warrior and have a vista that begins with McCarthyism …
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Books
Correcting the Canon: The African American Feminist Art of Meta Fuller
In 2012, the gap between the rhetoric of inclusion and the reality of exclusion remains huge. Renée Ater’s new book, Remaking Race and History: The Sculpture of Meta Warrick Fuller, goes a long way in correcting the glaring omission of one of the key African-American woman artists of the twentieth century. Learn how Meta Fuller went from making her art in the evenings after finishing her domestic chores to creating one of the most remarkable Pan-African artworks of that era.
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