The Palestinians Must Apologize to the Lebanese
A Palestinian apology could pave the way for reconciliation by confronting the historical injustices inflicted on Lebanon. On October 26, Palestinian gunmen manning a checkpoint at Beirut’s Shatila...
Edward Said
Two Years of Arab and Muslim Failure
Today marks the second anniversary of the horrific attacks when Hamas militants stormed out of the Gaza Strip into nearby Israeli towns. They killed, maimed and burned 1,200 civilians in a brutal door-to-door...
Op-eds
Why Is there no Palestinian State?
The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is intractable. One binational state is impossible, given that the two sides – Jews and Arabs -- have irreconcilable national projects. The two-state scenario has also proven elusive with Palestinians refusing to recognize Jewish nationhood.
Op-eds
Gaza and the De-Colonization Narrative
Western views of Arab society often get one major thing wrong – Arab agency.
Op-eds
Lebanon, America, and the Courage of Fouad Ajami
For his courage to think independently, and for his honesty in tackling Arab failure, Ajami became the guiding light for many Arab thinkers after him.
Op-eds
Beyond Orientalism
Bernard Lewis, the incomparable scholar of the Middle East and Islam, died last week. I cannot claim to have known Professor Lewis well, but one didn’t need to spend much time in his...
Op-eds
A Historian in Full
The university flag at Princeton is flying at half-mast. It’s an appropriate tribute to Bernard Lewis, who died on May 19, less than a fortnight from his 102nd birthday. Professor Lewis was...
Op-eds
What’s in a Name?
Barack Obama’s habit of avoiding Islamic nomenclature and highlighting American gun violence whenever Muslim terrorists strike is surely, in part, a product of his fear of anti-Muslim xenop...
Op-eds
A Nasty Piece of Work
A tawdry new book accuses the late Christopher Hitchens of plagiarism—and worse.
Op-eds
How Orientalism Shaped Obama
The White House’s response to the anti-Islam video is proof of the enduring influence of Edward Said’s ideas
Op-eds
“Islamophobia” and the Silencing of Dissent
In recent years, much has been written on and discussed about “Islamophobia,” that contrived prejudice that is said to attach to those who question, however sincerely, prevailing unde...
Op-eds
Good-Natured Liberals Become Iran Apologists
Every further step Iran's quest for nuclear weapons takes, and any new piece of evidence documenting it, should concern good-natured liberals. As dedicated internationalists, they should dec...
Op-eds
Despite Criticism of Israel, Hitchens was Ardent Foe of Anti-Semitism
Not long ago, I told an older colleague of my admiration for Christopher Hitchens, the Anglo-American author, journalist and public intellectual who finally succumbed to esophageal cancer Thursda...
Op-eds
Disoriented
The state of too many Western leaders ten years after 9/11/01.
Op-eds
The Company He Keeps
Meet Obama's circle: The same old America-hating Left.
Op-eds
In Defense of Ayaan Hirsi Ali & Afshin Ellian
Paul Berman's book, The Flight of the Intellectuals, which was neglected or dismissed by many in the liberal press without its reviewers seriously engaging with its arguments, deals es...
Op-eds
How Democracy Became Halal
IN the Western study of medieval Islamic history, the institution of iqta — land grants from the sovereign to his soldiers — once loomed large, because scholars searched for reasons b...
Op-eds
Obama Pal Rashid Khalidi Back in the News for Aiding Hamas
President Obama’s good friend, former PLO mouthpiece Rashid Khalidi, is back in the news. He has signed an appeal for funds to outfit another ship that, like the “peace flotilla,&rdqu...
Op-eds
Why Won’t Obama Talk About Columbia?
Barack Obama does not want to talk about Columbia. Not even to his good friends at the New York Times, who’ve so reliably helped him bleach away his past — a past neck-deep in the har...
Op-eds
The Right to Exist
Michael Lerner and Cornel West regard themselves as brave because they “dare” to question “America’s almost blind support for Ariel Sharon’s government.”...