All Roads Lead to Rome

I’ll be the first to admit that I have a thing for local newsstands. I couldn’t stop myself from marveling at how the USA Today logo anchors each row of these European newspapers.

My stepmother introduced to me El Pais when my parents lived in Madrid. My father taught himself Italian by reading Corriere Della Serra when we lived in Genoa in the early ’70s.

Noticing the USA Today logo, Jennifer remarked, “Its like watching TV in Israel, and all of the sudden discovering Bill O’Reilly sandwiched in between France 24 and Arabic soap operas.”

Just Like One of Us

He’s not considered a player in public debates about Israel, but he should be. In Wednesday’s edition of Religion Dispatches, I discuss Slavoj Zizek’s criticisms of  ‘anti-anti-Semitism’, in his new book, Violence.

Released in the UK at the beginning of 2008, the volume did not appear in the US until August. The last time I reviewed a book by Zizek was Welcome to the Desert of the Real, for the SF Bay Guardian, in October 2002.

Also worth noting: We published a review of the Independent Jewish Voices anthology in Zeek yesterday. Whereas my review tackled the book from ‘abroad’, Keith Kahn-Harris explains its significance for British Jews.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Israel

Finally an excuse to make a bad Raymond Carver pun. My analysis of the surrogacy role that Israel played in the 2008 US presidential election campaign, in Friday’s edition of Religion Dispatches.

Local Knowledge

My take on the new Independent Jewish Voices anthology, A Time to Speak Out, was published by The Guardian today. It’s my first contribution to the paper. I can’t recommend the book more highly.

New Advertising Platform

Hipster couture for the spycam admin in you. Electric Avenue, 11/14/08.

All You Need is Love

The X underneath the Entry sign is key. West Hampstead tube station exit, London, 11/13.

Think It’s Not Kosher

Taking a stroll through the Brixton Market the other day, a close Jewish friend asked me what halal means. Knowing enough to assume it was Arabic, I explained in shorthand that it was the Muslim equivalent for ‘kosher’.

The question didn’t surprise me. My friend is an American in their early thirties, and like most adults in the US, was never required to learn any thing about Islam until 9/11, and even then, only in relation to the war.

With so much halal-referencing signage in London, irrespective of what one’s cultural or religious orientation might be, it’s impossible to avoid the Islamic aspects one encounters in everyday life here.

Eating lunch around the corner from this butcher shop today, a colleague gave me a fantastic overview of the Jews and Arabs that migrated to Jamaica during the 20th century, and helped build the island’s music industry.

Judean Gothic

My take on today’s mayoral polling in Jerusalem was just published by France 24. Gotta love my editor, who wrote a killer caption for the cartoon/photo montage of candidate Meir Porush, pictured above.

England’s Reading

The day after the US election. Victoria line train heading north, between Stockwell and Vauxhall. 9:45 AM.

The two most popular papers at our newsstand – The Guardian and The Independent – were sold out.

The New Anti-Semitism

What do we make of right-wing incitement against Islam in America, and Arab Americans like Rashid Khalidi? Because it is primarily directed at Jews, despite the fact that most find themselves drawn to Obama, how are we to effectively interpret it, and work to minimize it’s potential consequences? Surely there is serious damage being done here.

Such forms of agitation are designed to erect the most vulgar of barriers between peoples, in this case, two American communities, both of whom share roots in the Middle East and bear unique personal witness to that region’s troubles. In the same way that US foreign policy has made it even more difficult to reconcile Jews and Arabs in the Levant, we must recognize that these kinds of practices also tend to inscribe similar kinds of divisions in the Diasporas we share.

Indeed, it is hard to not see in the kind of language used to classify Obama as a Muslim, and Khalidi a terrorist, a perverse desire to bring the war back to the West, and make sure that the same stresses that characterize life in the Middle East also make themselves felt in America as well. It seems that wherever we go, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is inescapable.

-From an article in progress