Leonard Fein
By Leonard Fein
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Opinion Let ‘Em Eat Nothing
“Eat Mexicans.” That’s Stephen Colbert’s advice to people who will be tossed aside when Congress finally gets around to overhauling the food stamp program. The solution proposed by the House Republican leadership is only slightly less macabre than Colbert’s — and, unfortunately, it is serious, as we may assume Colbert’s advice is not. The plan?…
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Opinion For True Peace, All Issues Must Be Resolved
The brambled path that winds through all the efforts to resolve Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians is littered with failure. Here, some prisoners released; there, some interventions by Israel’s High Court of Justice to limit Israel’s encroachment on Palestinian lands. Here, a pledge to avoid incitement; there, cooperation on security issues. Add all the leaky…
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Opinion Could Kerry Be the One?
In certain circles, it is fashionable to dismiss John Kerry, typically by casting him as naïve, Pollyannaish. That is a major mischaracterization. Whether his current apparent success in getting the Israelis and the Palestinians to meet together bears fruit or not, Kerry is an immensely capable man with a distinguished public record that stretches back…
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Opinion Barack Obama Adds Punctuation Point to Race Conversation
The complicated saga of race in this country has dozens of punctuation points. Birmingham and Selma, the summer of the freedom riders, King’s life and oratory and his awful death, Lyndon Johnson’s uttering “We shall overcome” to a joint session of Congress, rallies, marches, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act…
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Opinion Congress SNAPs Fingers — and Poor Risk Losing Food Stamps
Context: Some years back – in 1986, to be precise – there was a day called “Hands Across America,” an effort to create a living line from Los Angeles to New York (minus, if memory serves, the Rockies). The purpose was to raise money to do battle against hunger. Nearly 7,000,000 people participated and the…
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Opinion If I Were Israel — I’d Move
If I were Israel, I’d move. The entire neighborhood, once more or less bearable even though always problematic, has gone to hell. Egypt: In 1978, Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin shared the Nobel Peace Prize. (Jimmy Carter, who brokered the Egypt/Israel peace treaty, remained a bridesmaid rather then being recognized as the officiant.) Since that…
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Opinion Israel’s Most Dangerous Enemy
The most dangerous current threat to Israel may well be Danny Danon, Deputy Minister of Defense and a star of Likud, the linchpin of the governing coalition. He is, in Robert Kennedy’s language characterizing Jimmy Hoffa, “the enemy within.” True, Israel is threatened by Palestinian and other would-be terrorists who seek to maim and murder…
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Opinion Barack Obama Asks Americans To Trust Him When History Proves We Cannot
“Noting extensive deliberations in the Situation Room, [the President] added, ‘Unless you’ve been involved in those conversations, then it’s kind of hard for you to understand that the complexity of the situation and how we have to not rush into one more war in the Middle East.’” That’s how The New York Times reported President…
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