The topic of American Jews and Israel growing apart is an omnipresent one in Jewish circles -- a fear I've seen raised for as long as I can remember. Obviously, we're hearing more about it now...
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-other-reason-american-jews-are.html
You've probably heard about a brewing free speech incident at USC, where the provost canceled a planned speech by the student valedictorian that pertained to prior pro-Palestine/anti-Israel ...
The Venice Biennale is an annual art exhibition designed to showcase the work of artists around the world. Open to exhibitors from any country with diplomatic relations with Italy, the event ...
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-submission-is-point.html
The ongoing fallout of the Dobbs decision, and the way it's made manifest the GOP's extreme and retrogressive anti-abortion priorities, has caused no small amount of soul-searching amongst Rep...
I consider myself a very creative person. But I don't have a lot of traditional creative outlets. I've always had very high expectations of myself, and as a corollary I didn't enjoy things I wasn...
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-fruit-stand-mediocre-artistic.html
Yesterday, political observers witnessed the seemingly-odd phenomenon of a bunch of Trump supporters at one of his rallies chanting "genocide Joe" as the former President spoke on current goi...
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2024/04/what-to-make-of-trumpist-genocide-joe.html
These stories tend be overshadowed by what's happening in Gaza , but they're still happening with all-too-much regularity : > At least one Palestinian has been killed and 10 have ...
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2024/04/west-bank-settler-terrorism-continues.html
If you're in my neck of the internet woods, you've no doubt heard about the incident in Berkeley where a small group of students conducted a pro-Palestinian protest in the backyard of the Dean...
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2024/04/assorted-thoughts-on-chemerinsky.html
Ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Gaza continue to grind along, and Hamas has responded negatively to the latest offer on the table . Which makes me wonder -- what are the leverage poi...
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2024/04/who-has-what-leverage-over-hamas.html
There are many instances where I think BDS protests are misguided, problematic, or even morally abhorrent. But I'm not sure I've ever seen a case that more exemplifies BDS in its most petty, p...
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2024/04/you-cant-accept-me-if-i-reject-you.html
Anecdotally, the Israeli attack on WCK humanitarian aid workers delivering food in Gaza appears to be a tipping point for some people. On some of the (ostensibly) liberal Zionist forums I fr...
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2024/04/glass-house-cleaning.html
An apparent Israeli air strike killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen who were distributing food supplies in the Gaza Strip in what the IDF is calling a "tragic incident" . T...
Immediately after the Key Bridge collapse, I wrote the following : > Congress needs to pass $$ for the Key Bridge rebuild ASAP. The > longer it waits, the more likely some�...
A GOP state legislator in Michigan, Rep. Matt Maddock, saw a bus with too many brown people near at the airport and jumped to the obvious conclusion: "Happening right now. Three busses just lo...
For many years, Israel has effectively exempted Haredi youth from the otherwise universal requirement (for Jews) of IDF service. This has been a serious source of tension and strife in Israeli...
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-looming-haredi-draft.html
The Portland JCC, which also houses the local Jewish Day School, was swatted today . Elsewhere, the mom of a friend of mine nearly got victimized by a scam where someone used voice-altering s...
UC-Berkeley Political Science professor Ron Hassner has ended his sleep-in protest , stating that the university administration has agreed to all of his requests. In particular he flagged the ...
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2024/03/jewish-protests-at-berkeley-follow-up.html
All of the sudden, I've been on an art kick. The below image is a silkscreen I recently purchased from DC-based artist Halim Flowers . Flowers was convicted of felony murder as a juvenile and sen...
I enjoy talking to my brother about politics because he is, for lack of a better way of putting it, far more normal than I am. He is not passionate about politics, but he's not ignorant about ...
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2024/03/conversations-with-normies.html
In the latest iteration of her "notable sandwiches" series, Talia Lavin tackles the age-old question "Is a hot dog a sandwich?" She gathered a host of experts from a range of different disci...
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2024/03/is-originalism-sandwich.html
I wrote a few days back about goings-on at Berkeley regarding protests -- which turned destructive -- against an Israeli speaker and a general deterioration of the situation for Berkeley's Je...
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2024/03/jewish-protests-at-berkeley.html
I've been trying my best to give a dispassionate account of how the "uncommitted" campaign is doing . Obviously, supporters have an incentive to pump up its successes; opponents have a perhaps...
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-uncommitted-story-part-ii.html
A few years ago, I flagged a poll of American Jewish attitudes regarding Israel that had some to my mind interesting data . Basically, many of the more strident "criticisms of Israel" -- ones ...
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2024/03/israel-has-right-to-exist-after-that.html
The Supreme Court this morning ruled in Trump v. Anderson that states cannot enforce the insurrection provisions of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment against federal office-seekers....
I just finished a draft article (now before law reviews!) entitled "They Managed a Protest: Prohibitory, Ethical, and Prudential Policing of Academic Speech." As the name implies, it addre...
http://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2024/03/berkeley-has-tough-task-ahead-of-it.html