This morning, The Huffington Post features an exclusive excerpt from the RP’s latest book, The Liberal Case for Israel: Debunking Eight Crazy Lies about the Jewish State” In the excerpt, the RP discusses the toxic charge of “pinkwashing,” in which anti-Zionist activists claim that Israel brags about its extraordinary LGBT culture to brainwash Americans about its other activities:
Israel’s commendable gay rights record should be a cause for the American Left to celebrate. But in the Orwellian dystopia that is our political discourse today, the Israel-is-always-wrong crowd has used Israeli publicity of its proud LGBT culture as yet another reason to criticize the Jewish State.
Borrowing a term coined by the breast cancer prevention community to describe companies that claim to care about the disease but at the same time sell carcinogenic products, the anti-Israel crowd has redefined “pinkwashing” as Israeli propaganda designed to hypnotize American liberals into ignoring Israel’s transgressions in the disputed territories.
The most quotable advocate of this terminology is CUNY English Professor Sarah Schulman, who described her objective as trying to frame the Palestinian cause with simpler language, “like in the kinds of magazines you read in the laundromat.” (Perhaps “pinkwashing” is supposed to remind laundromat users of the infuriating consequences of leaving a red shirt in a white washload?)
By Chris Schulz, RP Staff, on Fri May 4, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET
Scientists witness a star being “consumed by a black hole. [latimes.com]
Many people look to gardening as a healthy and green activity. But beware that many garden tools have been found to have dangerous chemicals. [cnn.com]
The early warm weather this year is affecting plants much more than models have predicted. [bbc.co.uk]
Indonesia’s Mangroves are disappearing at an alarming rate, and some are trying to save them. [npr.org]
By Chris Schulz, RP Staff, on Fri Apr 27, 2012 at 2:00 PM ET
New polls show that the US is split just about evenly on energy subsidies. [latimes.com]
A slideshow of the 5 cities in the US with the highest level of air quality. [cnn.com]
Is it possible for a tribe of people and their lifestyle to be protected and preserved in today’s world?[yahoo.com]
As the popularity of urban chicken farming rises there is now the issue of “retirement” for those chickens, which can be pets as well as livestock. [nytimes.com]
By Chris Schulz, RP Staff, on Fri Apr 20, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET
As electric cars become more popular make sure that you consider where the electricity is coming from. In coal heavy states they are not as clean as you may think. [yahoo.com]
It is no surprise that the majority of Americans link the unusual weather this year to climate change. [nytimes.com]
New data shows that our obsession with sprawl may be over. More people are moving back into cities. [usatoday.com]
We now have an answer of which came first, the chicken or the egg? [bbc.co.uk]
By Jonathan Miller, on Fri Apr 20, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
Cincinnati.com is running a terrific story about how one of my childhood best friends, Bret Caller, and his business partner, Steven Miller (no relation) have used their business saavy for some exceptionally noble purposes — including helping rescue Ethiopian Jews living in abject poverty.
Steven Miller and Bret Caller, managers and co-founders of Blue Ash-based Viking Partners, don’t do anything halfway.
They’re aggressively capitalizing on the flood of failing commercial real estate loans, and recently made the first two acquisitions – shopping centers in Louisville and near Indianapolis – from their second private equity fund.
Away from the office, the business partners and friends have established themselves as leaders in the community, largely thanks to their work with the Jewish Federation on a local and national level. Caller also is active in the United Way’s Tocqueville Society, whose members donate $10,000 annually. Miller recently became involved with the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Cincinnati.
Those who know them say their reputations as tough businessmen precede them, as does their belief in the importance of helping others. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, Miller says.
“One of the reasons we do what we do is to provide for our families first and foremost, and secondly to provide for others,” Miller says.
In 2006, they were part of a group that helped rescue and transport Ethiopian Jews who were living in third-world conditions without running water or electricity to Israel. James Miller, the chairman of downtown’s Bartlett & Co. and a Viking investor, first met Steven Miller while he was giving a presentation about the Ethiopia trip.
“The first time I saw him, he couldn’t stop crying,” James Miller says. “It was pretty moving; he can’t talk about Israel without tearing up. The funny thing about it is he’s a very tough guy.”
1. As the movie reviewers from In Living Color would say: “Hated it!”
2. This may be the first book review in history to quote Benjamin Netanyahu, Fredo Corleone, Emily Bronte, Three Dog Night, and Jerry McGuire.
An excerpt:
Within the aching, romantic heart of Peter Beinart lies an epic, tragic love story.
Beinart’s latest book, The Crisis of Zionism, begins as a tale of the author as a young boy, sitting at the knee of his immigrant grandmother, falling in love with her utopian vision of their ancestral homeland, a nation of liberal values and the moral pursuit of peace. You had me at “Shalom”!
But recently, upon receipt of a mysterious video — featuring a young boy mourning the arrest of his Palestinian father — our heroic narrator removes his devotion-inspired blinders, and his now-unjaundiced eyes reveal a long trail of illiberal betrayal by the wholly hole-y Holy Land.
But rather than retreat, our author sets out instead to reform his unfaithful love. With a self-image of Biblical proportions, Beinart likens himself to the Hebrew Prophets who decried the misuse of power the last time the Jews ran Israel.
Alas…this Jeremiah is a bullfrog.
Like many works in the kiss-and-tell genre, The Crisis of Zionism is driven by emotion rather than fact, and is so transparently one-sided that it reveals that the true betrayer is the author himself. Beinart is like Heathcliff, whose misinformed, misguided abandonment of his true love damns the couple to tragedy. Or perhaps he’s Fredo, whose thwarted ambition leads him on the path to perfidy, enabling and empowering his family’s enemies. You broke my heart, Peter. You broke my heart.
By Jonathan Miller, on Tue Apr 10, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET
Yoni Cohen of Forbes magazine wrote a great piece about the cleantech revolution proceeding in Israel, with an interview of my two friends and colleagues, Jack Levy, Me’ir Ukeles and Glen Schwaber:
Cleantech Investing In Israel, The Startup Nation
Israel is the “Start-Up Nation.” The tiny country has more scientists, engineers, and start-ups, per capita, than any other nation in the world. Numerous Israeli firms have been acquired by leading multinationals including Google, IBM, and HP. Other Israeli start-ups have gone public; more than 50 Israeli firms are listed on the NASDAQ alone.
Israel is also a hotbed of cleantech entrepreneurship. According to a new report from the Cleantech Group and WWF, Israel is the second most innovative country worldwide for cleantech. (Denmark ranked first). “Coming Clean: The Cleantech Global Innovation Index 2012” finds that Israel leads the world in creating cleantech companies and has produced a disproportionate number of high-quality firms.
Israel Cleantech Ventures (ICV) is the leading cleantech venture capital firm in Israel. To learn about Israeli cleantech innovation and ICV’s strategy and investments, I spoke with the firm’s three founding partners: Jack Levy, Meir Ukeles, and Glen Schwaber.
A, Jack Levy: Per capita, we have by far the most start-ups, particularly in cleantech. Although Israel is 60-plus years old, the country’s private sector is really young. Its roots are in the 1980s and 1990s. A lot of the dynamism in the economy really comes from that. Another driver is the military experiences that young people go through, which gives them great responsibilities, great opportunities, and a can do attitude. But the driver that is most important and hardest to replicate is cultural, the perspective that failure can be one step along the way. America shares that perspective, but there are plenty of other cultures where a fear of failure keeps very talented people from taking risks or leaving larger organizations to start enterprises. Israel has a risk-taking culture. A lot of it comes from the fact that the downside is not as strong. If you fail, you’ll try to learn from that failure and keep going. People won’t hold your failure as a strike against you.
Q: In what areas is Israel strongest in cleantech innovation?
A, Meir Ukeles: At Israel Cleantech Ventures, we focus on areas that make sense in Israel for venture investing. Generally these are areas where Israel has very strong roots, in traditional energy and water industries. Israel is a dry country with a lot of sunlight and, up until recently, no domestic fossil fuel resources. Not surprisingly, technologies for solar, water efficiency, water treatment, water reuse and, in the last 10-15 years, desalination, have pretty deep roots. Call that one bucket.
The second bucket are startups that draw on technology innovation and intellectual capital out of what would be called traditional technology industries: semiconductors, power electronics, communications, and wireless in particular. There has also been some innovation in energy storage, a lot of which over the years was funded by or benefited from research and development done in the military and in the defense establishment and then, in the last 20 years, has been a hotbed of more traditional venture-backed, for-profit activity. There is a lot of innovation that comes from those roots and finds its way to the biggest problems of our era: resource efficiency, resource imbalances, and the environmental footprint of consumption.
The third bucket is from pockets in which Israel’s traditional industrial base has a lot to contribute. Chemicals are one area where there is a lot of competence, some of which flows to the water industry. Other aspects go to agritech and green fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.
JTA, the leading international Jewish news agency featured a piece written by the RP last week in which he lambasted his fellow Jonathan Miller (the British playwright) for signing what The RP termed an anti-Semitic letter.
Let’s start with the first Jonathan Miller in the headline.
He’s a former state state treasurer in Kentucky and failed candidate for governor. He’s the creator of theRecovering Politician blog. And (full disclosure) he’s a JTA board member and basketball commentator.
… Jonathan Miller, the News Corp executive, Jonathan Miller, the Birmingham Rabbi, Johnathan Miller, the Iran-Contra felon, or even Jonathan Miller whom God called to run for Congress in West Virginia.
Instead, Jonathan Miller (Blogger-Ky.) writes, his “deep disappointment is directed toward the most famous Jonathan Miller.”
For those of you who are under the age of 50 and have never tried to Google me, THE Jonathan Miller is “is a British theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, humorist and sculptor,” best known for being a frequent guest in the early 1980s on The Dick Cavett Show.
Turns out Jonathan Miller (Actor-UK) has signed on to a call for a British theater (oh, fine, theatre) to exclude an Israeli troupe over the situation in the West Banlk. And Jonathan Miller (Blogger-Ky.) thinks this crosses into anti-Semitic territory:
But he did not protest the inclusion of a Turkish theater in the production (despite that country’s controversial occupation of parts of Cyprus), or China’s theater (despite their much-documented record on human rights in Tibet and other provinces), or Iran’s theater (despite their horrible treatment of minorities, especially gays and lesbians), or Russia’s theater (despite its violent occupation of Chechnya), or the Palestinian theater (despite its support for indiscriminate bombing of Israelis), or even the United States’ theater (despite our continued presence in Afghanistan and Iraq).
