Eugene Robinson's Blog, page 110

Give Kerry a break for his efforts at an Israel-Gaza cease-fire

Secretary of State John Kerry was right to push this week for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. All outside parties should do everything they can to end a war in which both Israel and Hamas have seemed willing to fight to the death of the last Palestinian civilian. Perhaps a path out of the madness can be found during the 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire set to begin early Friday today.

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Republicans are absent on immigration reform

The Republican Party’s paralysis on immigration is so complete — and so utterly irresponsible — that President Obama has no choice but to act on his own.

Just say the word immigration and most GOP members of Congress either change the subject or scurry away. Rather than tackle a suite of genuine issues whose obvious solutions would clearly benefit the nation, House Republicans prefer to pass yet more useless bills that seek — and fail — to take away people’s health insurance.

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Israel is acting as if it is free of moral responsibilities.

The civilian death toll in Gaza from Israel’s latest incursion is appalling. The right to self-defense is inalienable, but it is not free from moral constraints.

As of this writing, nearly 750 Palestinians, including dozens of children, have been killed since the Israeli assault began. On Thursday, a compound housing a United Nations school — crowded with Gaza residents who had fled their homes to seek shelter — was shelled in an incident still under investigation by the Israeli Defense Forces. Palestinian officials said 15 people were killed and scores injured.

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The downside of giving weapons to rebels in Ukraine or Syria

The bodies and debris that rained from the Ukrainian sky offer a cautionary lesson about the danger of giving heavy weapons to non-state actors. I hope the hawks who wanted President Obama to ship anti-aircraft missiles to the Syrian rebels are paying attention.

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Peace may never be at hand

Israelis and Palestinians may someday make peace. But the assumption should be that it won’t happen soon — perhaps not in our lifetimes.

How often have we seen this movie? Palestinian atrocity, Israeli reaction escalating into overreaction, rocket attacks aimed at civilian targets in Israel, airstrikes targeting Palestinian leadership and infrastructure in Gaza, heartbreaking pictures of mangled young bodies on the beach. Palestinians say: We will never forgive the Israelis for killing our children. Israelis say: We will never forgive the Palestinians for forcing us to kill their children.

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Republicans rant but offer no solutions

Apparently there’s a contest among Republicans to see who can be more shameless and irresponsible in criticizing President Obama’s foreign policy. So far, Chris Christie is winning.

The New Jersey governor alleged Saturday that “the unrest you see in the Middle East is caused in some measure — not completely, but in some measure — by the fact that this president has not acted in a decisive, consistent way.”

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An overriding need for immigration reform now

There’s no objective need for President Obama to visit the Texas-Mexico border and see the immigration crisis firsthand, but he shouldn’t have claimed that “I’m not interested in photo ops.”

The line about photo ops was so absurd that it’s a good thing he wasn’t under oath. Every president since Abraham Lincoln has been interested in photo ops. Posing for the cameras amid artfully chosen people and props is something presidents do every day. Obama is very good at it, and there are times when he actually gives the impression that he enjoys it.

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Eugene Robinson: NSA’s misguided snooping on innocent people

Even those who believe the National Security Agency’s vacuum-cleaner surveillance of electronic communications does not trample privacy rights should be troubled by this practical implication: If you try to know everything, you end up knowing nothing.

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This July 4, governing in the spirit of revenge

As we celebrate the Fourth of July, who can argue that our democracy is working the way the Founders intended? And who can deny that most of the blame for dysfunction must fall to the Republican Party?

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A bad patch, yes, but don’t write off Clinton

In politics, as in many endeavors, it helps to be underestimated. In this sense, Hillary Clinton is doing great.

Clinton’s book tour, which bears some resemblance to a presidential campaign, is being portrayed as some kind of disaster. Her attempt to portray her family as less than fabulously wealthy was bad; her effort to justify that pretense was worse. Her political instincts seem rusty, her reflexes a bit slow. To top it off, the book she’s flogging — a memoir of her years as secretary of state — is not a publishing juggernaut, merely a bestseller.

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