James M. Wall
Unchecked sources: The media and a culture of fear
Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser in the Carter administration, believes that the Bush administration’s use of the term “war on terror” has created a culture of fear that’s had “a pern...
Rice's mission: Making demands on Israel too
When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice traveled to the Middle East in late March, she took along a plan to provide both Israeli and Palestinian leaders with “a political horizon.” The plan, says ...
Money trail: Donors' influence on candidates' views
Former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack has abandoned his quest for the presidency because he could not raise sufficient funds....
Apartheid denial: Carter's book continues the conversation
Time magazine senior editor Tony Karon writes a personal Internet blog that he calls the “Rootless Cosmopolitan,” a term Russian dictator Joseph Stalin used as a euphemistic pejorative for Jew...
Film picks: Recommended movies from 2006
The Nativity Story’s Christmas card tableau evokes every nativity performance we have ever seen. But there is no triteness, sentimentality or forced piety in it because we have met this couple in the grimy reality of their village, in the crowded streets of Jerusalem and on the rocky paths to Bethlehem. We know that they are carrying out a difficult assignment, and that their hardest work is still ahead: they have to raise this infant to adulthood. Along with the familiar, The Nativity Story delivers unexpected moments that inform and inspire.
Inquisitive president: The quest for peace
In his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, Jimmy Carter declares that “one of the major goals of my life, while in political office and since I was retired from the White House by the 1980 ...
Give hudna a chance: An obligation to find a lasting peace
Election season 2006 is over, and we can say goodbye to the negative media ads and stories. Opposing sides fought one another with reckless abandon....
Film feast: Insights from the Montreal World Film Festival
During this year’s Montreal World Film Festival, I spoke with Suayip Adlig, a producer of the Iraqi Kurdish film Narcissus Blossom....
War plan: Bombing civilians does not win much leverage
On July 12, Hezbollah fighters crossed the border separating Israel from Lebanon. They killed several Israeli soldiers and captured two others, spiriting them across the border into Lebanon....
Gift list: A stewardship wedding and an altruistic registry
"Pay attention: These are our values." That’s what we’re saying when we make decisions about spending money or ask others to spend money on our behalf....
Wartime scripts: Making the weak appear to be the aggressor
On the night of June 10, two men from Saudi Arabia and one from Yemen fashioned makeshift ropes from knotted bed sheets, then hanged themselves in their Guantánamo Bay prison cells....
Unilateral proposal: Isolating Palestine
Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert traveled to Washington in late May to tell President Bush about his plans for Israel’s future....
Fresh evidence: U.S. and the Israel lobby
John Mearsheimer, an expert in international relations at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, academic dean of Harvard University’s John F....
Port paranoia: The Dubai deal
Congressional leaders from both parties responded quickly to White House approval of a deal that allows Dubai Ports World company, owned by the United Arab Emirates, to control shipping operations ...
Dealing with Hamas: Palestinians make their choice
Hamas was formed in 1987 as an Islamist movement in opposition to Israel. It was linked to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood....
Top films of '05
In Oscar nominee Crash, writer-director Paul Haggis examines the U.S. racial divide in a series of interconnected short dramas that reach a powerful conclusion. It is a painful film to watch because Haggis offers no comfortable side with which the viewer can identify—until, that is, a conclusion provides a note of grace-filled hope. The racial bias of both black and white characters is exposed, leaving everyone culpable. As in many Krzysztof Kieslowski films, there are moments that suggest a transcendent hand is at work.
Bubble-wrapped: Americans and the American media
Newsweek magazine’s cover story “Bush in the Bubble” (December 10) features an image of the president trapped inside a bubble. It’s an insightful story that does not go far enough....
Signs of hope: News from the West Bank
Signs of hope from Israel and Palestinian are so rare that when two such signs emerge only 48 hours apart, it is time to rejoice. The first sign of hope was well reported....