July 13, 2009 • Vol. 14, No. 40 Download Now! (pdf)

 

EDITORIAL
On Obama's Watch
by William Kristol

SCRAPBOOK
The 'Argentine Firecracker'

ARTICLES
Questioning Sotomayor
by Robert F. Nagel

Reversing Sotomayor
by Terry Eastland

A Good Niebuhr Policy
by Matthew Continetti

Tehran Needs to Stop Meddling
by Jonathan Schanzer & Howard Gumnitzky

What If Writing Were Like TV?
by P.J. O'Rourke

The Triumph of Crony Capitalism
by Fred Barnes

FEATURES
Bibi's Choice
by Peter Berkowitz

To Board or Not to Board?
by Jeremy Rabkin & Mario Loyola

BOOKS & ARTS
Rebel With a Cause
by John O'Sullivan

Seeing It Now
by Terry Teachout

Additional Splendor
by James Gardner

Touch of Evil
by Stephen F. Hayes

Sacha Kidder
by John Podhoretz

CASUAL
Michael and Me
by Jonathan V. Last

CORRESPONDENCE
Fortune 500, Rousseau & more

PARODY
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« Daily Blog Buzz: Pencil Me In... | Main

Purim Is Their Halloween

Mark Murray writes at First Read:

When McCain made a foreign policy gaffe in Jordan on Tuesday, it was Sen. Joe Lieberman who quietly pointed out the mistake, giving McCain an opportunity to correct himself in front of the international press corps. In Israel yesterday, NBC’s Lauren Appelbaum reports, Lieberman once again intervened when McCain made an incorrect reference about the Jewish holiday Purim -- by calling the holiday "their version of Halloween here."

Yglesias describes this as "more ignorance" from John McCain. Not really. Having just returned from Israel, I can assure Murray and Yglesias that the sight of little kids running around in costumes is explained to Americans with a simple, "this is their Halloween." Are they actually engaging in some ancient Jewish form of trick or treat? No. And of course Lieberman is an observant Jew, so no big surprise that he didn't love the comparison. But this is a pretty desperate game of gotcha. And if you don't believe me, here's a recent post by an Israeli on the Purim holiday--it's titled "Our Halloween."

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