Where Left and Right can meet

George W. Bush came to Israel bearing great gifts. With the Zionist narrative of Israel's founding being assailed worldwide, with magazines like The Atlantic Monthly asking "Is Israel Finished?," the President of the United States gave Israel an emphatic bear hug. The embrace was sincere; Bush has no more elections to run. He spoke for posterity not for Jewish votes.

Bush visited Masada, and viewed the Israel Museum's 2,000-year-old scroll of the Book of Isaiah. Both stressed the Jews' historic connection with the land of Israel, along with the biblical values Israelis and Americans share. BushÂ’s speeches celebrated Israel's past, present and future, recounting how an oppressed people found redemption and achieved greatness by rebuilding their old-new land.

'April Fools' report minimizes Palestinian anti-semitism

I usually don't like playing bash-the-journalist. I try avoiding the ritualistic Tirade against the Times, which keeps pro-Israel New York Times readers' blood flowing. But an April 1, 2008 front-page article was so ridiculous it could have been an April Fools joke. "IN GAZA, HAMAS'S FIERY INSULTS TO JEWS COMPLICATE PEACE EFFORT," the headline ever so delicately proclaimed - as if there was much of a peace effort with Hamas to complicate, and as if the bombs raining down on Sderot or hundreds of cold-blooded murders over the years did not first "complicate" matters. Even the usually hostile International Herald Tribune reprinted the article under a more accurate headline "HAMAS RATCHETS UP ANTI-JEWISH RHETORIC." Equally absurd, the one line the Times website highlighted pronounced:  "While the Palestinian Authority under Fatah has made significant, if imperfect, efforts to end incitement against Jews, Hamas feels no such restraint." Moral obtuseness is one of the great crimes of our times and of the Times.  The editors too easily forgive Fatah's "imperfections" in fighting anti-Semitism.

Want the best president for Israel?

'Super-Duper" Tuesday is looming February 5. Americans will vote in 22 states, including New York, New Jersey and California, all with major Jewish populations. As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fight fiercely for the Democratic nomination, many pro-Israel voters are asking, "who is best for Israel"?

Truth is, despite the murmurings about the "Jewish vote" and the "Israel lobby," few American Jews today are such narrow one-issue voters. Amid American Jews' lamentable but growing disinterest in Israel, most American Jews are more multi-dimensional, and frankly, more passionate about other stances such as being pro-choice and anti-Bush. With American support for Israel so widespread and "apple pie," most mainstream candidates make enough pro-Israel noises to satisfy the casually pro-Israel American Jew.

About this blog

Center Field McGill history professor Gil Troy - a passionate moderate - looks at the American presidency, American history, Zionism, Judaism and Israel today.

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Recent Comments

Lenny: Muscular moderate? How about masculinity without testicles-there one in the same. You libs will never stop believing that if you can just talk to the tyrants the force of your charsima will open their blind eyes to the error of your ways. The problem is that when you speak to them they only see the depravity of your domestic policies and they are only emboldened to demand more--and they usually get it.
Steve Washington State: When will the end of the violence come? Where will Messiah plant His feet, and how receptive will His chosen people be to His coming? The great hope of the ages is not in any human-spawned ideology, nor in mere tolerance of those in our midst. We must genuinely love each other for the very survival of the nation. The warnings of the prophet Jeremiah are coming alarmingly true in a second fulfillment. Oh Israel, look up and turn back to G-d before it is tool late! Oh blessed believing remnant, lift up your heads, for your salvation is drawing nearer every hour!
Joel, Canada: On balance, Kadimah has not been an infrastructure for a push towards the center. It was created as a vehicle for a strong individual leader, and in his absence, has become a cockpit, in both senses of the word, where policies are driven by personal needs, not by a push towards any given direction. The two traditional major parties have to become the vehicles for moderate leadership, assisted by meaningful electoral reform. The best model for achieving a moderation that lasts was the creation of the Likud from several smaller parties. It was spearheaded by -- Ariel Sharon.