Category Archives: Published articles

Leftists Marching Backwards

Leftists Marching Backwards

By Robert Liebman, timesofisrael.com, August 7th, 2017

Notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. Fugitive terrorist murderer Assata Shakur, a.k.a. Joanne Chesimard. Would-be police killer Baba Sekou Odinga.

America’s top feminists—leaders of several well-attended progressive, gay and anti-Trump marches—openly and unapologetically admire the unadmirable.

Bari Weiss, New York Times Opinion Section editor

Will progressives have more spine than conservatives in policing hate in their ranks?,” asked Bari Weiss in a recent [August 1, 2017] New York Times op-ed.

My answer: “No!” It’s too risky. Continue reading

The Right-On Loony Left

Bias of the Myopic Left

By Robert Liebman, Jewish Chronicle (UK), March 10, 2016, slightly modified July 2018

The radical left can chew gum and protest two or more causes at the same time. In fact, as self-proclaimed humanitarians, they should cast a wide net. Why, then, in a wicked world, do western boycott activists focus only on Israel? Continue reading

Lefty Academics Gunning for Israel

Poor Aim, Wrong Target

By Robert Liebman, originally published in Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME), January 10, 2015

Several recent initiatives reveal the deep intent of many academic BDS supporters to attack Israel at any price, even if their own credibility and integrity foot the bill. Continue reading

Princeton Profs Reveal Bias

Garden Variety Israel Bashing in the Garden State

By Robert Liebman, originally published by SPME (Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, December 10, 2014; this version slightly modified and images added, August 2, 2018.

More than fifty tenured Princeton academics recently signed a petition urging divestment from companies which supply military-related equipment to Israel. The organizers hope that many more of their colleagues will join them. The petition threw the local Jewish community into uproar. Continue reading

Oy-ometer

The Biased Article that Send my Oy-ometer off the Scale

By Robert Liebman, Jewish Chronicle, May 9, 2014, this version slightly modified, and images added, August 1, 2018.

oy vey Alongside notifications of jumble sales and concerts, an article in the newsletter of my local church propelled the needle on my Oy-ometer off the scale.

Israel, this article proclaimed, was cruelly and arbitrarily mistreating the residents of a Palestinian Christian village. The writer supported her contentions with evidence that was weak (where it was comprehensible) and blatantly biased. Continue reading

Hating Israel is forever, not just for Christmas. Or Chanukah. Or May Day.

Hating Israel (Religiously)

Hating Israel is forever, not just for Christmas. Or Chanukah. Or May Day.

By Robert Liebman, Times of Israel, December 24, 2016 – slighted modified and photographs added, July 26, 2018

Which Side Are You On, Boys?”

The fiftieth anniversary of the Six Day War in 2017 is likely to be overshadowed by commemorations for the one-hundredth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. Each is monumentally important.

Leftist detestation of Israel did not begin with Israeli statehood in 1948 or the Suez crisis in 1956. Continue reading

Britain’s Loony Leftists: A Study in Spinelessness

A UK political car crash resonates in Israel

By Robert Liebman, Times of Israel blog, March 4, 2014 – slighted amended and photographs added, July 24, 2018

A collision between a paedophilia advocacy group, a civil-liberties organisation and the Labour Party has resulted in a major British political scandal. The kerfuffle has nothing at all – and everything — to do with Israel. Continue reading

Soccer Riots in Britain

Soccer Riots and British Character

New York Times, May 18, 1986

Brawling is as British as shepherd’s pie. Murder isn’t.

One year after the Brussels soccer riot and on the eve of the World Cup in Mexico City the British national character takes center stage.

On May 29, 1985, fifteen months after moving to London from New York, I watched a live broadcast of British soccer fans running amok in Brussels before the game between Liverpool and Juventus, from Turin, Italy had even begun. When it was over, the body count was 39 dead and hundreds injured. Continue reading

Supermen Schlemiels

Rabbis or Rakes, Schlemiels or Supermen? Jewish Identity in Charlie Chaplin, Jerry Lewis, and Woody Allen

by Robert Liebman

Film/Literature Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 3, 1984

Adenoid Hynkel (Charlie Chaplin) holding a globe of the world.

Adenoid Hynkel (Charlie Chaplin) and the world he wants to conquer.

In the topsy-turvy world of Yiddish and, later, Jewish-American narrative, the schlemiel reigns supreme, while the superhero who frequently accompanies him is largely ignored.

This larger than life-size, obviously compensatory doppelganger offers startling insights into Jewish fears of inadequacy, inferiority, and powerlessness—fears which are not necessarily unjustified. Continue reading