By James J. Zogby This past week the New York Times ran an article, "Israeli Airport Detention of Prominent U.S. Jew Prompts Uproar," focusing on the airport harassment received by Peter Beinart, a prominent liberal writer and TV commentator. The article mentioned a number of other American Jews who were...
Washington Watch: Hype Versus Reality
By Dr. James J. Zogby Fifty years ago, when I was getting started in national politics, Ibrahim Abu Lughod, a friend and mentor, offered words of wisdom I never forgot. Although he read the New York Times every day (he called it his "daily drug"), he cautioned me not to...
By James J. Zogby Forty years ago this month I left a tenured teaching position and moved to Washington, DC to run the Palestine Human Rights Campaign (PHRC). It wasn't easy doing Palestine work back then, and Washington was an especially inhospitable city in which to pursue my new vocation. ...
By James J. Zogby Fifteen years ago, we were still in the early stages of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, "the war that would change everything." Looking at the Middle East today, I feel an overwhelming sadness as I consider the far-reaching and devastating impact that the Iraq...
Washington Watch: The "Jewish Nation-State" Bill
By Dr. James J. Zogby This past week by a vote of 62 to 55, Israel's Knesset passed legislation called "Israel as a Nation-State of the Jewish People." Heralding the passage of the bill, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described it as "a defining moment in the annals of Zionism and...
Washington Watch: Thank You, Ireland
By Dr. James J. Zogby On Wednesday morning, I watched an amazing debate unfolding in the Irish Seanad (Senate), as members spoke for and against a bill to prohibit the importation of Israeli goods produced in settlements in occupied Palestinian lands. The legislation in question is the Control of Economic...
By Dr. James J. Zogby This week, the Arab American Institute Foundation will release a comprehensive study on anti-Arab hate crimes in the US. The result of eight months of work, "Underreported, Under Threat: Hate Crime in the United States and the Targeting of Arab Americans," fills a gap in...
By Dr. James Zogby The Supreme Court decision upholding the Trump Administration's infamous "Muslim ban" will have consequences far beyond its restriction on visas for nationals from the affected countries. Of the greatest concern is the validation it has given to the president's virulent anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant rhetoric. It was Trump's...
By Dr. James J. Zogby The sights and sounds of Central American children being ripped from their parents by U.S. Border Patrol officers have, by now, spread across the globe. The experience has been traumatizing to its victims and deeply painful to watch. It has also done incalculable damage to...
Washington Watch: The Liberal's Lament
By Dr. James J. Zogby I find it exceptionally irritating when I hear liberals worry about whether Israel will be able to remain a "Jewish and Democratic State" if it retains control of occupied Palestinian lands. It's irritating because Israel is not now a democratic state nor has it ever...
