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February 2014

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 26, 2014 9 Comments
After an all-night session, the UCLA student council defeated an ant-Israel divestment resolution by a vote of 7-5.  (Featured image is moment vote announced.) The vote received enormous attention, and was trending in the U.S. on Twitter. This is a huge defeat for BDS on campus. Divestment resolutions recently were overturned at UC-Riverside and defeated at UC-Santa Barbara. I can't say whether this is a national trend, but it does signify that pro-Israel students now are more organized than in the past. (added) Ben Shapiro made a "guest" appearance against the resolution: In this image, one of the student council members a student note taker, who appears to have supported the resolution, is crying and screaming that she's never been so disappointed and that "we just fucking blew it." (UPDATE -- Video HERE) UCLA student we just fucking blew it

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 26, 2014 6 Comments

Herbie from Chicago sends this along: Spotted in an Evanston, Illinois parking lot. Someone apparently changed hiser mind about the Veep and Vice-Veep. Looks like s/he missed a spot: ...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on February 25, 2014 3 Comments

The Ukrainian parliament delayed a Tuesday deadline to form a new government, postponing those efforts until Thursday. From FOX News: Ukraine's interim leaders pushed back their self-imposed deadline to form a unity government Tuesday, while the whereabouts of the country's fugitive president, Viktor Yanukovych, remained unknown. Members of...

Posted by Bryan Jacoutot on February 24, 2014 28 Comments
Piers Morgan is used to telling people to get off his lawn. Now CNN is telling Morgan to get off its lawn. CNN has confirmed that Piers Morgan’s 9pm show, Piers Morgan Live, is coming to an end. The exact date of the final show has not yet been determined. Although news of the prime-time shakeup came without much warning, it could hardly be called unexpected given Morgan’s increasing disconnect with his American audience. In breaking the story on Morgan’s departure from the 9pm slot, David Carr at the New York Times first offered the following explanation:
Old hands in the television news business suggest that there are two things a presenter cannot have: an accent or a beard. Mr. Morgan is clean shaven and handsome enough, but there are tells in his speech — the way he says the president’s name for one thing (Ob-AA-ma) — that suggest that he is not from around here.
Morgan agreed, but felt his personal anti-gun agenda might also have played a factor.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 24, 2014 19 Comments
The latest poll from the University of Texas/Texas Tribune shows that Wendy Davis' 15 minutes of fame may be fading. After closing the gap to mid-single digits behind Greg Abbott in prior polling, Davis is back down to 11 points behind:
In the governor’s race, Abbott would beat Davis 47 percent to 36 percent in a general election held today, with 17 percent of registered voters saying they have not made up their minds about which candidate to support, according to the poll. “We’ve been talking since the beginning of this race about whether anything would be different, and we’re not seeing anything that’s different,” said Jim Henson, co-director of the poll and head of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. “There was some talk about how Davis had done better in our last poll, and that was partially an artifact of her rise in the fall, and we’re seeing something of a reassertion of the normal pattern.” In the October survey, Davis’ announcement and sudden political celebrity cut the Republican's lead over her to 6 percentage points. Now, the distance between the two has widened a bit. “The story of the last four months is, Davis loses a couple points, Abbott gains a couple of points,” said Daron Shaw, co-director of the poll and a professor of government at UT-Austin. “He had a pretty good couple of months. She had a pretty bad couple of months, all without many people paying attention.”
The details are even more disheartening for Davis, as her unfavorables have grown from 31 to 35%, with a whopping 28% very unfavorable.  By contrast, Abbott's unfavorables are at 25% with only 16% very unfavorable:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 24, 2014 23 Comments
We reported yesterday how incoming American Studies Association President Lisa Duggan of NYU organized an anti-Israel conference through NYU, but didn’t want those who disagree to know about it (via Elder of Ziyon).  The Facebook post about the event since has been taken down. It appears that secrecy is the new policy at ASA. Earlier this month I wrote to ASA Regional Chapter Presidents asking for their position on whether the ASA academic boycott of Israel applied to Regional Chapters and their events, such as regional conventions.  This is an important issue because much of ASA's presence -- other than its Annual Meeting -- takes place through the Chapters.  To understand the scope and application of the boycott, we need to know whether the Regional Chapters will follow the boycott. My email is quoted below.  Some responded that they didn't know but would find out and get back to me (but didn't), others didn't respond. Now I know why I have been met with mostly silence. Apparently the ASA Exceutive Committee is not happy about this inquiry, and has told the Regional Chapters not to communicate with me other than to refer me to the ASA boycott resolution itself (which, of course, I already have).  This amounts to a complete non-communication strategy. Here is the email the ASA Executive Committee sent (emphasis added):

Posted by David Gerstman on February 24, 2014 1 Comment
Recently, Joshua Muravchik wrote Why the Left Should Stop Carping and Love the Jewish State, Again, at The Tower Magazine. In one paragraph he presents the gist of his argument.
Moreover, when viewed in the light of the core values of the Left—and, indeed, much of the contemporary Right—Israel actually comes off remarkably well; often much better than its most violent critics. These values are summed up by the great slogan of the French Revolution: “liberté, egalité, fraternité,” “liberty, equality, fraternity.” Israel’s record with respect to these core values ranks among the best in the world, while that of its principal enemies, the Arab nations, is dismal. Indeed, Israel’s record is in some cases better even than its European and other Western critics. Because this record is often obscured in the angry polemics against Israeli policies toward the Palestinians, it is worth examining it in depth.
One thing Muravchik mentions is the record of Israel's Arab enemies. It's indeed something worth looking into. However there's also the record of Iran, Israel's major non-Arab enemy that's worth examining. The liberal (or leftist) world has made a cause of reaching out to Iran. In doing so the Left ignores the way Iran violates many of its cherished values. I'd like to look at a few of these issues.

Minority Rights

Contrary to the impression presented by Iran's leadership, Iran has a huge minority population, including Kurds, Azeris, Balochs and Arabs. According to this list, minorities make up at least 40% of Iran's population. (I recently attended a lecture that put the figure at 50%.) What rights do minorities in Iran have? In last year's election, then-candidate, Hassan Rouhani promised greater freedom for Iranian minorities.
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