The Schwarzschild Award

Posted on: January 23rd, 2006

The winner of the Monitor’s second annual Henry Schwarzschild Award for most offensive comments by a Jew in the public spotlight goes to Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. The prize, which last year went to Israeli uber-leftist Uri Avnery, is awarded to the person who, in the Monitor’s considered opinion, by his or her statements displays a contempt for the Jewish people, a disregard for historical truth, a desire to sup at the table of Israel=s enemies, or who otherwise plays into the hands of the enemies of Jews and Israel.

Remembering Milton Himmelfarb

Posted on: January 18th, 2006

Milton Himmelfarb died earlier this month at age 87, and chances are you never heard of him if, like most Americans, you tend not to be a devotee of intellectual and political journals. But Milton Himmelfarb — Mendy, as he was known to his family — was, by virtue of temperament, history and family, a seminal figure in the development of neoconservatism as one of the country’s most influential political forces.

Sharon’s Glowing Coverage

Posted on: January 11th, 2006

There was no escaping the news of Ariel Sharon’s massive stroke last week. Newspapers, magazines, radio, television, the Internet — all were chock full of breaking stories; backgrounders on Sharon’s life; sound bites from doctors, Israelis, Arabs, Jews in New York, and various Jewish organizational types desperately trying — without much success — to seem even a little bit relevant.

Harmless Humor — Or Insidious Influence?

Posted on: January 4th, 2006

NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” has once again inspired dismay among at least some Jewish viewers who feel the line between simple bad taste and outright anti-Semitism was crossed on the Dec. 17 edition of the long-running show.

Chauncey Clark, Time Traveler

Posted on: October 29th, 2003

Freshly minted Democratic heartthrob Wesley Clark has stumbled badly during his first days as a declared presidential candidate.

Favorite Websites List

Posted on: October 22nd, 2003

The votes have been received and tabulated, and the winner in the Monitor's first-ever readers' Favorite Websites poll is ... Jewish World Review, the daily webzine that, hard to believe, is the fruit of one man's labor.

The Times’s Middle East Religion

Posted on: October 15th, 2003

In its determined insistence that both the origin and solution to the war between the Arabs and Israel somehow revolve around settlements and 'occupied territory,' The New York Times echoes a line first popularized immediately after the Six Day War by a gaggle of liberal Christian clerics.

Talking Back To The Times

Posted on: October 1st, 2003

Sam Ehrenhalt, whose op-ed articles and letters to the editor always enhance The Jewish Press, has shared with the Monitor a thoughtful note he recently dispatched to New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller.

Israelis Worry About Whom?

Posted on: September 24th, 2003

TimesWatch.org is a website every serious consumer of news should have on his or her 'favorites' list.

Hillary After Dark

Posted on: September 17th, 2003

Not two hours after the lights went out in the Northeast last Thursday, Sen. Hillary Clintonwas in front of the microphones doing what she does best: carping, criticizing, dividing.

Losing The Debate

Posted on: September 10th, 2003

Recently, a weekly television program that focuses on Israel featured a debate between a young woman from an Arab-American organization and the show's host, who in real life is a prominent attorney and real estate developer.

None Dare Call It Treason

Posted on: September 3rd, 2003

Controversial pundit Ann Coulter's best-selling book Treason has raised the ire of liberals, and not a few conservatives, who feel she wields too broad a brush in painting Americans on the left side of the political divide as unpatriotic - even, as the title implies, treasonous.

Differing Takes On Bush-Abbas

Posted on: August 27th, 2003

How went the Bush-Abbas meeting at the White House last Friday? Depends on whom or what you read. Most newspapers highlighted Bush's criticism of Israel's security wall while relegating to secondary status the president's sharp words to Abbas about the necessity of halting Palestinian terror.

Truman Diaries Expose Toothless Watchdog

Posted on: August 20th, 2003

The Monitor really hadn't planned on writing once again about Harry Truman.

Just Wild About Harry

Posted on: August 13th, 2003

Harry Truman reached out from the grave last week and exposed the media's double standard when it comes to judging Democrats and Republicans. A librarian at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, discovered a 1947 diary of Truman's that had been sitting unopened on a shelf for some four decades.

Misreading The Road Map

Posted on: August 6th, 2003

The July 4th holiday having thrown the Monitor off schedule, this week's column is placed in the capable hands of HonestReporting.com.

Bad News Dems? Not On The Networks

Posted on: August 1st, 2003

Regular readers know by now of the Monitor's high regard for the Media Research Center (www.mrc.org).

Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is Kerry

Posted on: July 23rd, 2003

On the campaign trail last week, Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry accused President Bush of breaking his promise to put together an international coalition to wage war against Saddam Hussein.

Deconstructing Sharon

Posted on: July 9th, 2003

Discriminating readers of The New York Times grew accustomed in the late 1990's to the error-prone (as well as transparently biased) reports filed with mind-numbing regularity by the paper's former Jerusalem bureau chief Deborah Sontag.

Hateful Cartoon; Liberal Hypocrisy

Posted on: July 2nd, 2003

Dick Locher, a cartoonist for Tribune Media Services, touched off a mini-firestorm last week with a blatantly anti-Semitic editorial cartoon that ran in the May 30 edition of the Chicago Tribune.