General News

Evangelical Leader Criticizes the Tea Party's Radical Individualism

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Members of the Tikkun Community might be interested the Rev. Richard Cizik’s piece in this morning’s Washington Post. In short, Cizik criticizes the emerging alliance of Christian Right leaders with the Tea Party. Whether the Christian duty to love our neighbors is compatible with a political movement that embraces radical individualism and rejects the ethic of collective responsibility is a central question as the GOP attempts to cement the Tea Party and the religious right into a cohesive base. Cizik goes on to explain the obvious contradiction between the two right-wing camps. Tea Party activists and Republican leaders have consistently targeted for cutbacks vital government programs that protect the poor, the elderly, children and other vulnerable Americans.

General News

Palestinian Activists Planning to "Reenact the U.S. Civil Rights Movement’s Freedom Rides" on Israeli Buses

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Palestinian activists in the West Bank are expanding their nonviolent protest efforts against civil and human rights abuses with a new campaign set to launch next week. As Noam Sheizaf reports in +972 Magazine:
Palestinian activists are increasing their efforts to expose Israel’s segregation policy in the West Bank, as well as violations on their civil and human rights. In a message to the press, the Popular Struggle Committee announced that on November 15, Palestinian activists “will reenact the US Civil Rights Movement’s Freedom Rides to the American South by boarding segregated Israeli public buses in the West Bank to travel to occupied East Jerusalem.” Palestinians in the West Bank have lived under Israeli military control since 1967. Among other restrictions, they can only vote in elections to the Palestinian Authority, which has very limited power on the ground.

General News

An Important Occupy Wall Street Victory: Shifting the Conversation from "National Deficit" to "Personal Debt"

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Media outlets have steadily increased their Occupy Wall Street coverage in recent weeks – a victory in and of itself for the movement. However, most dramatic is the sudden narrative shift that has occurred at the national level as a result of this increased media coverage. No longer are our pundits and reporters obsessed with “the deficit” and “ceilings” and incomprehensible numbers with zeros that go on ad infinitum. Instead, they are talking about popular disaffection with big banks, about personal financial struggles, about personal debt. It’s a point Sarah Jaffe correctly noted, in passing, in a recent article on the possibility of debt strikes (a topic to which I will return):
One of the fascinating things about the media dominance of Occupy Wall Street has been how the conversation has shifted away from the deficit-obsession of the last few years.

Politics & Society

Photo Essay: Occupy Oakland's General Strike

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Many of the general strike images that have become iconic fail to convey a central embodied experience of the day: the intense sense of connection, warmth, and engagement experienced by the people who participated in the day’s mass nonviolent actions. This photo essay offers a vision of the general strike from the ground, from the perspective of participants.

Politics & Society

Jews & Soviet Communism, Part 3

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The story of industrial spies, Joel Barr and Alfred Sarant, has a ‘Keystone Kops’ aspect….
Prof. Snyder uncovers the monstrous nature of the Stalinist regime that Communist spies tragically (and unwittingly) chose to serve.

Politics & Society

Jews & Soviet Communism, Part 2

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The Rosenberg case was a quintessentially “Jewish” story: the defendants, the judge, the chief prosecutor, the witnesses and all or most of the defense attorneys were Jews. (… the jurors were all non-Jews, however.)

Education

Anonymous' Attack on Drug Cartel Benefits Youth in my Community

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The Houston Chronicle reports that the ubiquitous hacktivist (dis)organization Anonymous is celebrating Halloween by threatening to expose the members of Zetas, one of the most powerful drug cartels in Mexico. My little county, Rio Arriba, in northern New Mexico, has long been overrun by drugs because of this cartel. The guys on the left are not drug kingpins. They are ranchers. And they are seriously put out with the cartels.

General News

Tens of Thousands of Protesters Return to Israel's Streets as the Struggle for Economic Equality Continues

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With the Knesset set to reconvene, and with the Occupy Wall Street protests reverberating from America, tens of thousands of protesters marched in cities across Israel, reigniting their struggle for social and economic justice. Protesters railed against a host of social and economic injustices, including the growing gap between the rich and poor in Israel, with many protesters echoing refrains now heard at Occupy Wall Street protests in America. Many held signs that read “We are the 99 percent,” and several protesters mirrored the occupation language that has become synonymous with Occupy Wall Street. One particularly poignant sign read “Occupy Tel Aviv, Not Palestine.” The rallies across Israel were held against the backdrop of tragic escalations of violence in the southern portion of the country.