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Overcoming Jewish America's Israel Fantasy

Lisa Goldman +972 Magazine
The idea of Israel has long been an integral part of Jewish-American identity. But with a generational change among American Jews and increasingly stark political differences with Israel's leadership, could this be the dawn of a new era?

The Republican Party's 50-State Solution

By Thomas B. Edsall, Contributing Op-Ed Writer The New York Times
Since the early 1970s, the right has conducted a sustained drive to gain power and set policy in the 50 states. The left, by contrast, has been far less effective at the state-level. The sustained determination on the part of the conservative movement has paid off in an unprecedented realignment of power in state governments.

Why Israel's Schools Merit a US Boycott

Saree Makdisi Los Angeles Times
The justification for an academic boycott — which targets institutions, not individual scholars — stems from the peculiar relationship between Israel's educational system and its broader structures of racism.

When the Supreme Court Busts a Union

Jay Michaelson Daily Beast
Can public-employee unions charge a fee in order to represent all their workers? The Supreme Court heard the case on Monday.

How to Make Sense of Anti-Latino Racism

Linda Martín Alcoff The Indypendent
The idea that some cultures are unchangeably “backward” and hence inassimilable is the basis for the new concept called “cultural racism.” And it is cultural racism, not the diversity of cultures, that threatens the aspirational democratic values that are often articulated yet too rarely achieved in the United States.

Black Students Win UC Prison Divestment

Anthony Williams Afrikan Black Coalition
On Dec. 31, the University of California (UC) finished selling all of its direct investments in private prison corporations concluding the university’s recent divestment from the GEO Group and the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), two major for-profit businesses funding and maintaining American prisons. This decision to divest was in response to pressure from the African Black Coalition (ABC). Read ABC's press statement issued last month.

Socialist Win in Seattle: Anomaly or Harbinger?

Jonathan Rosenblum Alternet
A socialist win in Seattle demonstrates that ordinary people are receptive to unapologetic left politics. Can Seattle socialists expand their base and advance progressive reforms like rent control and a tax on the richest residents? And what can left activists elsewhere take from Seattle to launch their own progressive candidacies?

Climate Insurgency after Paris

Jeremy Brecher Portside
In December of 2015 - the earth's hottest year since recordkeeping began -- 195 nations met in Paris to forge an agreement to combat global warming. The governments of the world acknowledged their individual and collective duty to protect the earth's climate -- and then willfully refused to perform that duty. What did they agree to, and how should the people they govern respond?