Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:10:04 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss David Twersky :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/David+Twersky istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/the-danger-of-madrid/81796/ Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST This week's interfaith conference in Madrid, sponsored by the Saudi King, may be inherently limited in scope — but that doesn't diminish its capacity for trouble. Like the debate over Senator Obama's proposal to enter into direct talks with the president of Iran, critics are put in the awkward position of opposing dialogue in favor of conflict. Why, ask proponents of dialogue, should we look a gift horse in the mouth. The danger in interfaith dialogues, as in diplomatic ones, is the price of... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/in-search-of-real-time-answers/67837/ Tue, 11 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST Talk about a bad week for an American president. I am not talking about George W. Bush but rather of Lyndon Johnson — and the week the Chinese communist regime tested its first nuclear weapon. It was three weeks before LBJ's election showdown with Senator Goldwater. He had just read the first public report of the arrest the previous week of his famed aide, Walter Jenkins, in a downtown Washington men's room on what was then referred to as a morals charge. On October 15, the pro-America Tories... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/annapolis-predicament/66962/ Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST Talk about your willing suspension of disbelief. The international parley on the Israel-Palestine peace at Annapolis tomorrow is being presented as a "meeting" — less than a conference but more than a photo opportunity. The best that can be expected of Annapolis is that, while there will be no breakthrough, there will also be no breakdown. The Bush administration's predicament is not only the absence of sufficient grounds for agreement on an Israeli-Palestinian deal. For the maximum Israel is... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/keep-this-ally/66206/ Fri, 9 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST Pakistan has become the latest microcosm containing all the contradictions bedeviling American policy. Our commitment to democracy and human rights is running afoul of our war against the Islamist terrorists, and not for the first time. Our commitment to stability is going head to head with our commitment to the rule of law. For a nation as powerful — and with as many diverse interests — as America, it would unreasonable to expect a field free of such agonizing dilemmas. This is a time to keep... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/arts/best-and-worst-of-youth/59220/ Thu, 26 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST Throughout the eight related and overlapping novellas that constitute "The Great Kisser" (Rager, 171 pages, $24.95), the protagonist, Michael Goldberg, is living in a state of perpetual disorder. The plot is triggered by the release to him of years of tapes of his sessions with his psychiatrist, Dr. Solomon Butinsky. Goldberg is a surrogate for his author, David Evanier, right down to a chapter that hilariously summons up the years Mr. Evanier spent at the Anti-Defamation League. Like Mr... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/crude-comparison/59077/ Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST On what grounds should we be offended by Rep. Keith Ellison's analogy between 9/11 and the Reichstag fire? In a July 8 speech, the nation's first ever Muslim congressman said that President Bush's post-9/11 policies "kind of reminds me" of the Reichstag fire. "After the Reichstag was burned," the Minnesota Democrat said, the Nazis "blamed the communists for it, and it put the leader of that country in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted." In defense of... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/caught-standing-still/56965/ Wed, 20 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST In all the predictable circles, including the New York Times editorial column, Israel is taking the brunt of criticism for the Hamas takeover in the Gaza Strip. According to this view, a sufficient supply of Israeli generosity to Mahmoud Abbas in the lead up to the takeover would have provided the president of the Palestinian Authority with a winning political argument: Moderation pays in the currency of Israeli concessions. Actually, figuring out how Palestinians react to specific Israeli... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/great-expectations/55458/ Wed, 30 May 2007 00:00:00 EST The Bush administration opposes timetables, and only reluctantly and begrudging accepts benchmarks, in regard to Iraq, but proposes both in regard to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The idea animating the Acceleration Benchmarks for Agreement on Movement and Access for agreement on movement and access as well as on the Gaza security situation was to facilitate the flow of people and goods within and between the Palestinian areas in an attempt to allow the president of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/betting-on-frances-first-round/52721/ Wed, 18 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST The first round of voting in the French presidential campaign takes place next week, on April 22. In theory the first round could produce a winner, but only if one candidate wins more than 50% of the vote. That's proven impossible in recent elections, and this year's campaign is no different. French political loyalties are too fractured, and polls aren't showing any one candidate passing 30% next week. The two main candidates are Segolene Royal of the Socialists and Nikolas Sarkozy of the UMP... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/surprise-for-wesley-clark/46912/ Thu, 18 Jan 2007 00:00:00 EST On the topic of General Wesley Clark's remark about the influence of "New York money people," let me say that I hope he is right. I hope "New York money people" are, in fact, telling Democratic Party hotshots with their hands out for contributions that beyond the terrible mess in Iraq lies a more dangerous challenge, that of Iran. The big problem is that General Clark might well be wrong. The chief editor of the New Republic, Martin Peretz, writes in his blog, "many New York money people, as"... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/arts/common-prayers/46657/ Mon, 15 Jan 2007 00:00:00 EST Zev Chafets has written books of fiction and nonfiction, many about aspects of life in Israel, where he lived for many years and served as the director of the Government Press Office, dealing with foreign journalists under Prime Minister Begin. In "A Match Made in Heaven" (HarperCollins, 231 pages, $24.95), Mr. Chafets has turned his sharp reportorial and rhetorical eyes to the dynamics of the highly unusual love-hate triangle among Christian fundamentalists, Israel, and American Jewry. Mr... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/revolutionary-alternative/46235/ Mon, 8 Jan 2007 00:00:00 EST America is in the awkward position of opposing what amounts to a coup d'ιtat against the elected government of Lebanon, while defending what amounts to a coup d'ιtat against the elected government of the Palestinian Authority. That is hardly the only contradiction in our Middle East policy. In Lebanon, we are trying to delimit the rise of the Shiites who want a share of power commensurate with their demographic weight in a decades-old system that divides the institutions of government according... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/reason-menendez-flinched/42322/ Thu, 26 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST During an appearance before Jewish voters in Livingston, N.J., last week, Robert Menendez flinched. Mr. Menendez is seeking to win the Senate seat to which he was appointed last year by Governor Corzine. I was on the panel asking questions of both Mr. Menendez, and once he was finished, his Republican challenger, Tom Kean Jr., now a senator in New Jersey's Legislature. After a few rounds of questions, audience members began sending up their questions, written on index cards. If it was about... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/war-in-new-jersey/41978/ Fri, 20 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST If you want to take the measure of the impact of October's events on the electoral fortunes of Democrats and Republicans, check out the New Jersey Senate race. In a virtual tie through September, incumbent Bob Menendez has now pulled ahead by four to six points. The surprise is that the GOP challenger, state Senator Kean, is even that close. The campaign is more about atmospherics than issues. Despite his strong anti-Iraq war stance, Mr. Menendez has always been generally hawkish for a... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/national/french-minister-meets-with-us-jewish-leaders/39491/ Tue, 12 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST The French minister of the interior and a leading candidate to replace President Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy, met with American Jewish community leaders yesterday in New York. The meeting, which took place at the French Consulate on Fifth Avenue, was covered widely by the French press. Mr. Sarkozy later attended memorial events commemorating the fifth anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001. The meeting marked the first time a major French presidential candidate has publicly cultivated... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/peress-faux-pas/38844/ Wed, 30 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST When Joe Lieberman heard that his political challenger, Ned Lamont, had dined with Israeli Vice Premier, Shimon Peres, it must have reminded him of the day when Jim McGreevy switched from the Lieberman presidential campaign to declare for Howard Dean. By December 19, 2003, Mr. Dean and the anti-Iraq war Democrats were riding high and the then New Jersey governor thought to catch the wave — even though he had been backing Mr. Lieberman and his political line for years. Mr. McGreevey called the... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/did-israel-lose-the-war/38140/ Fri, 18 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST Americans should resist the temptation to rush to judgment about the indecision at the finish of the Lebanon war where the fighting is ending with a whimper instead of a bang. Criticism from the anti-Israel left is routine, but it is quite extraordinary to see the same people who insist on nuance and complexity in evaluating America's difficult position in Iraq now rendering blanket assessments about Israel's performance in Lebanon. Those who want to focus on the consequences of a premature... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/frances-next-president/37464/ Tue, 8 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST One can almost see President Chirac getting off a plane, waving a piece of white paper, and describing the draft Security Council resolution aiming to halt hostilities in Lebanon as " peace in our time." But imagine if the current crisis in Lebanon could have occurred on the watch of a different French president, a leader wedded to neither the reflexive anti-Americanism nor the pro-Arab policies of Mr. Chirac. Impossible? Not really. The French elect a new president next spring, and under the... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/foreign/hiding-behind-israel/36850/ Thu, 27 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST Democrats shouldn't hide behind Israel when they are really targeting President Bush's Iraq policy. And neither should Republicans, who use the defense of Israel to rally support for the increasingly unpopular Iraq war. Congressional Democrats are demanding an apology from Prime Minister al-Maliki of Iraq for his criticism of Israel's military operations in Gaza and Lebanon. Moreover, they linked the apology to Mr. Maliki's address to Congress, demanding that his invitation be rescinded unless... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/foreign/looking-to-an-endgame-and-what-is-proportionality/36493/ Fri, 21 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST With regard to the current fighting in Lebanon, this week the zeitgeist shifted from finger-pointing to the end game. How should the war be brought to a conclusion? That depends whether or not you are prepared to accept a return to the status quo ante. While well intentioned, those calling for an immediate cease-fire — a group that as of yesterday includes Secretary-General Annan — are apparently ready to see a return to the long stand-off between Israel and Hezbollah. There's little doubt... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/foreign/to-say-israel-is-widening-the-war-is-poppycock/36133/ Mon, 17 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST Israel is racing against time to accomplish its objectives in Lebanon and Gaza before the U.N. Security Council adopts G-8 summit-type language that, inter alia, demands a cease-fire. The war was triggered when the terrorists showed how they had adapted to Israel's defensive security fence. While suicide bombings are way down, tunnels and kidnappings are up. And so are missiles, which no fence can stop. Instead of concentrating on these developments, critics argue that Israel seeks to destroy... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/foreign/assault-on-israels-1967-border/36031/ Fri, 14 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST HAIFA, Israel — On my way into the administration building at Haifa University yesterday I ran into an old friend, professor Yair Hirshfeld. Along with fellow academic Ron Pundak, Mr. Hirshfeld initiated the talks with Palestine Liberation Organization representatives in Norway that led to the Oslo Accords. It was a funny kind of day to meet up with him because Israel was now fighting on two fronts, in Gaza and Lebanon, where it adhered to the territorial strategies outlined in most peace... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/foreign/war-on-iran-has-begun/35990/ Thu, 13 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST TEL AVIV, Israel — The war with Iran has begun. Just last Friday, Iranian President Ahmadinejad warned that Israel's return to Gaza could lead to an "explosion" in the Islamic world that would target Israel and its supporters in the West. "They should not let things reach a point where an explosion occurs in the Islamic world," he said. "If an explosion occurs, then it won't be limited to geographical boundaries. It will also burn all those who created [Israel] over the past 60 years," he said... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/on-the-beach-2006-06-16/34607/ Fri, 16 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST As a former member of the Israeli artillery corps, I wanted to comment on the latest brouhaha over the recent explosion on a northern Gaza Strip beach that killed seven, capturing in the process video footage of a young girl running from the water to the body of her dead father, watching her world shatter into a thousand pieces. The Israeli military has conducted a review and declared quite categorically that the culprit was not an errant Israeli 155 mm. artillery shell. The Israel Defense... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/frank-purdue-school-of-foreign-affairs/33749/ Fri, 2 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST Remember Frank Purdue? Last week's flurry of events surrounding Israel and the Palestinians made me think of Purdue's famous commercial slogan: "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken." That's because series of tough steps designed to highlight the tight corner into which the Palestinians have painted themselves resulted in, at long last, the faintest glimmer of Palestinian moderation. Since the Hamas win in the Palestinian elections in January, there has been debate over how to react... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/arts/perfect-spys-story/33762/ Fri, 2 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST Efraim Halevy's story of his years in the ranks and leadership of Israel's Mossad could not have come at a more opportune time. "Man in the Shadows" (St. Martin's, 292 pages, $24.95) spotlights the most pressing and controversial areas where foreign and defense policy making, intelligence gathering, and political ambitions collide. As a former director of the famed intelligence agency, Mr. Halevy cannot kiss and tell, so he teases readers instead with sketchy references to, or descriptions of... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/wonderful-country/32655/ Fri, 12 May 2006 00:00:00 EST JERUSALEM - The satirical Israeli show, "Wonderful Country," has a bit where one of the regulars portrays the new foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, being interviewed on the national news. Asked to describe the platform of her new Kadima Party, she explains: "Our goal is to make peace with the people of P." "You mean the people of Palestine," the interviewer interjects. "We're not sure," the faux Minister Livni replies, "because that's as far as Arik Sharon got." One week into the new government... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/seven-days-in-may/32171/ Thu, 4 May 2006 00:00:00 EST Three years into the war in Iraq, it's generals vs. civilians in both Israel's defense ministry and America's Pentagon. In Jerusalem, generals and former generals used to seeing the defense ministry as a stepping stone into political life from the IDF General Staff are expressing concern about the ability of Labor Party chief Amir Peretz to perform as Defense Minister - or are damning him with faint praise. In Washington, former generals upset with the way things have turned out in Iraq are... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/obituaries/rabbi-arthur-hertzberg-an-appreciation/31724/ Thu, 27 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST Arthur Hertzberg, the rabbi, scholar, and activist who died April 17 at 84, was what could be called a premature dove on the Middle East. His was a faction that thought that if Israel recognized the Palestinians as a nation with whom it could negotiate, the problems resulting from the 1967 war would soon sort themselves out. They supported a two-state solution, though in the early days it was called a three-state solution by those (including the established leadership of the Labor Party and... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/taking-the-plunge/30115/ Thu, 30 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST There's this lovely moment near the beginning of "Casablanca" where Signor Ferrari (Sidney Greenstreet) offers to buy Rick's cafe. Rick, played by Humphrey Bogart, dismisses Ferrari's proposition, responding, "Suppose you run your business and let me run mine." A few moments later, Ferrari (who has obviously gone over this before, always ending up at the same place), chortles, "My dear Rick, when will you realize that in this world, today, isolationism is no longer a practical policy?" I... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/stockholm-syndrome-redux/28546/ Fri, 3 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST Russian attempts to put a positive spin on their talks with Iran only underscore the dangers involved in Moscow's talks with leaders of Hamas, set to begin today in the Russian capital. Just what would constitute a success? Don't underestimate the significance of Kremlin spin: on February 27, the Associated Press reported from Tehran that "Iran, Russia approve nuclear venture." By yesterday, the Washington Post ran a story under the headline, "Russia, Iran end talks without nuclear deal." Hamas... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/bush-israel-and-iran/27094/ Mon, 6 Feb 2006 00:00:00 EST The confrontation with Iran took quite a turn with the vote of the International Atomic Energy Commission to refer the Iran problem to the United Nations Security Council. The council may, or may not, impose sanctions to punish Iran (China still opposes sanctions, but has not made clear whether it would impose a veto). Sanctions could stall Iran's quest for nuclear fire or not. Few have commented on the fact that the IAEA's referral was marred by a successful attempt by Egypt to co-join the... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/israel-has-fewer-but-better-options/26630/ Fri, 27 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST When the Bolsheviki and their allies among the anti-war Mensheviks and Peasants Party seized power from the duly elected Kerensky government, Russians were against the continuation of the war, not for the totalitarian state. As we know, once in power the Bolsheviks laid down their arms, disbanded their militia, governing as liberals in a hurry. When the Germans voted the National Socialist Workers Party into power in 1933, they were voting against the hyperinflation crippling of the Weimer... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/looming-like-a-giant/25386/ Thu, 5 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST The first time I spoke to Ariel Sharon was in the early '90s at the editorial offices of the Jewish Forward. Seth Lipsky, now editor of the Sun and then the editor of the Forward, had invited Mr. Sharon in for coffee with the his staff. For my sins I was Washington bureau chief and was summoned to New York for the event, which had prompted some of the socialists on the Yiddish Forward to leave the building rather than have to shake hands with the man critics charged with being a far right... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/misguided-munich/24722/ Tue, 20 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST Surprisingly, the most pro-Israel film of the new decade isn't Steven Spielberg's "Munich," but Stephen Gaghan's "Syriana." Here's why: Mr. Gaghan's film explores the vast tapestry of American relations in the Middle East and wider Muslim world through the prism of oil, Islamic terrorism, the CIA, Arab reformers and Arab reactionaries and Iranian duplicity. What puts the film at the top of my own Zionist Academy Award list is what's missing from "Syriana": Israel and Jews don't merit a mention... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/eugene-mccarthy/24312/ Mon, 12 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST The death on Saturday of Eugene McCarthy at the age of 89 comes at a moment when Americans appear torn over the same fundamentals that fueled his quixotic 1968 bid for the presidency. McCarthy seized the standard of the anti-Vietnam War movement from the far left, planting that instinct firmly - and to judge by the recent turn of events, permanently - inside the Democratic Party. Viewed as a game of chess, nothing so resembles McCarthy's attempt to capture the Democrats 1968 presidential... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/musharrafs-week/20856/ Fri, 30 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST Life is like a box of chocolate. If I sound like Forrest Gump it's because I've been thinking about him, and about ping-pong-team diplomacy, since traveling to Islamabad and inviting President Musharraf to meet with the leadership of the American Jewish community. I've been pinching myself for months as General Musharraf accepted (I thought he would turn us down); as the news broke (I feared he would panic in the face of massive street protests by religious extremists that never materialized)... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/israels-frontier-thesis/17279/ Wed, 20 Jul 2005 00:00:00 EST Walking briskly through the American Capitol last week with several Israeli guests, I paused to consider Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze's brilliant rendering of American history, "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way." The 1861 oil study shows a wagon train of settlers descending from the Sierra Nevada range to the Golden Gate near what would become San Francisco. "Look," I told my guests, "a painting about Israel leaving the Gaza Strip." Only upon close study does it become clear that the push... David Twersky http://www.nysun.com/opinion/hertzberg-and-larouche/9330/ Wed, 16 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST If you want to understand the moral collapse of the left in America these days, consider the shame of Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg. He is a distinguished scholar and historian, a longtime spiritual leader of a suburban conservative synagogue, who has served Jewish organizational life as president of the American Jewish Congress and a vice president of the World Jewish Congress, years during which he emerged as one of the most articulate doves on the world scene. Yet the other day, this paragon of... David Twersky http://www.nysun.com/opinion/de-gaulle-without-gaullism/6907/ Wed, 29 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST The big news in Paris may have been the release on December 21 of the two journalists kidnapped by Iraqi terrorists and their return to a military airport in France, where they were greeted with much fanfare by President Chirac and Prime Minister Raffarin. Close observers of the French political scene, however, took notice of the visit to Israel one week earlier by Nicolas Sarkozy, who had served in both of Mr. Raffarin's governments as interior minister and then as finance minister before... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/foreign/bush-hints-at-israeli-role-on-iranian-atom-bomb/5369/ Fri, 26 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST At a dinner party two weeks before the election, President Bush agreed that a second-term flashpoint would likely center around the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran. "It is Israeli policy not to let that happen," Mr. Bush said, adding after a moment's pause. "Don't go telling anyone I gave a green light." Mr. Bush has triangulated his position between newly rediscovered European allies and the Israeli ally. The Europeans' fear of confrontation with Iran runs almost as deeply as the... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/new-york/new-jerseys-new-governor-takes-his-turn/4784/ Mon, 15 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST The former New Jersey governor Brendan Byrne likes to quip that when he dies, he wants to be buried in Jersey City so he remain "active in Hudson County Democratic politics." As it happens, it took until last Friday to resolve the Jersey City special mayoral election (made necessary by the death in office of Mayor Glenn Cunningham). As the new mayor, city councilor Jeremiah Healy, celebrated his victory, he was surrounded not only by Hudson County cronies and colleagues but by the new faces... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/new-york/right-wing-club/4489/ Tue, 9 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST The new exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York celebrating the four cooperative apartment complexes that went up in the northern Bronx early in the 20th century provides a glimpse of the world whence I sprang - and from which I rescued one of the most remarkable political documents I've ever seen. The complex my parents and I lived in was the Sholem Aleichem Houses, opened to tenant-owners. The others that are subjects of this wonderful exhibit are the Amalgamated Housing projects... David Twersky http://www.nysun.com/opinion/spoke-in-the-wheel/4428/ Mon, 8 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST Even as Yasser Arafat lies dying, he lives up to the reputation he earned in his active life. One couldn't even trust the opposite of what he said, or what was being said on his behalf. Arafat seized a place for Palestinians on the world agenda. As Hebrew University professor Menachem Milson once put it, Arafat raised the Palestinians from the dust and formed them into a people in the eyes of the world. But he could not, or would not, move beyond the revolutionary stage. Arafat had no interest... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/whos-afraid-of-christian-right/3643/ Fri, 22 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST In Tennessee, just down the road from Dayton, the town where John Scopes was tried for teaching evolution in the case made famous by Clarence Darrow's verbal duel with William Jennings Bryan and by the news coverage of H. L. Mencken, is the town of Whitwell. A white Protestant hamlet, it approved a middle school course on the Holocaust. The memorial consisted of seeking to collect a paper clip for each of the 6 million Jews who perished in the war. In short order, 22 million paper clips were... David Twersky http://www.nysun.com/opinion/global-memory-test/3139/ Wed, 13 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST "One of the most significant ingredients of contemporary political attitudes in Western Europe is a pervasive and often virulent anti-Americanism [so much so that] it no longer seems perverse to suggest that that the threat to world peace comes from...the United States of America and its trigger-happy President." -"Storm Over the Alliance," Alun Chalfont, Encounter, January, 1983 The Kerry campaign is subjecting American voters to an intensive course of attempted treatment for a nonexistent... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/blaming-the-jews-for-iraq/2557/ Fri, 1 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST The president was elected amid high expectations that he would discontinue his predecessor's habit of pressuring Israel to be more forthcoming in its negotiations with the Palestinian Arabs. He amassed a huge majority among Jewish voters by running against the incumbent simultaneously from the hawkish right and the dovish left. The buzz in Washington concerned the shape of the president's team and whether he would appoint a special envoy for the Israel-Palestine conflict. The president and his... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/national/poll-in-jersey-finds-a-surprise-as-kerry-slides/2052/ Wed, 22 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST TRENTON, N.J. - President Bush, in his most dramatic move in the polls to date, has climbed into a tie position with Senator Kerry in a state that was once considered an impregnable Democratic stronghold, New Jersey, according to a new poll of likely and undecided voters in the Garden State. According to a Quinnipiac University poll reported by the Associated Press, Messrs. Bush and Kerry are tied among likely New Jersey voters for the state's 15 electoral votes. Forty-eight percent of the... David Twersky http://www.nysun.com/opinion/ungreat-generation/2083/ Wed, 22 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST Okay, I admit it: My generation - women and men now climbing through their 50s and early 60s - is not the Greatest Generation Jr. I have grown to accept as fact the charge that we would not, in fact did not, rise to the great challenges of our time. Still, it remains true that men and women of this generation are now governing America; one of them will be our next president. As a nation, we never resolved the debate over the Vietnam War, and never fixed that tumultuous event in our national... DAVID TWERSKY http://www.nysun.com/opinion/and-now-the-manocherian-candidate/1874/ Fri, 17 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST As we pass the third anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, American support for Israel has become the secret election issue. Like reform of Social Security in the past, the "U.S.-Israel relationship" is now the third rail of American politics. Democrats are caught between those wanting to alter policy and those who, motivated by a combination of ideological, emotional, historical, and electoral arguments, advocate a steady course. The GOP is warmly embracing the relationship, with...