Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein is a MintPress analyst who has written the Tikun Olam blog since 2003, specializing in Israeli politics and US foreign affairs. Silverstein works to expose the excesses of the Israeli national security state. He breaks major news stories that are often under judicial gag or military censorship, and which may not be reported in Israel. He has been published in Haaretz, Al Jazeera English, the Forward, Christian Science Monitor, Middle East Eye, and the Seattle Times. He speaks Hebrew fluently and incorporates the Hebrew-language press into his blog and other publications. He earned a BA from Columbia University, a BHL from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and MA in Comparative Literature from UCLA. He did two years of undergraduate and graduate study at the Hebrew University. He lives in Seattle. Follow Richard on Twitter: @Richards1052

Israeli News Program Pulls Back The Curtain On Beloved General’s Sordid Past

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Israel, a country founded on violence, mass expulsion and racism, has elevated a violent sexual predator and mafia associate to its national pantheon.

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein
Ariel Sharon walks past a portrait of slain Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi, shot and killed by gunmen in Jerusalem in 2001. (AP/Emilio Morenatti)

SEATTLE --- Adored by multitudes of Israelis for his battlefield heroism and love of the land of Israel, Rehavam Zeevi is now being portrayed as a hero with feet of clay, if not baser material. Israel’s leading news magazine, “Uvdah,” recently aired a segment (Hebrew) that explores the darker side of the legacy of the Israeli general and cabinet

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Navy Spy Case Puts Assault On Constitutional Safeguards On Full Display

Everything done in absolute secrecy. Has the U.S. now adopted Israeli standards of opacity and unaccountability in such cases?

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein
In this Dec. 3, 2008 photo released by the U.S. Navy, Lt. Edward Lin, a native of Taiwan speaks. The U.S. military has charged Lin with espionage for allegedly passing military secrets to China or Taiwan, U.S. defense officials said Monday, April 11, 2016. (U.S. Navy/MC1 Sarah Murphy via AP)

Over the weekend, a major story broke about a U.S. Navy senior officer accused of spying for China. It was first reported by a U.S. Naval Institute’s website. He is Lt. Cmdr. Edward C. Lin, who served in the Patrol and Reconnaissance Group, which employs aircraft using highly sensitive technology to track and detect enemy submarines. Presumably,

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Obama Administration Anti-Semitism Czar Defines Anti-Zionism As Jew Hatred

Anti-Zionism, far from being a religious canard, advocates the transformation of Israel into a single unitary state in which both Jewish and Palestinian citizens will hold equal political rights. It is not the same as anti-Semitism, and conflating the two issues has dangerous consequences.

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein

  SEATTLE --- The Israel lobby’s flavor du jour in the battle to uphold Israeli triumphalism is the notion that anti-Zionism (which seems to be everywhere!) is anti-Semitism. The notion is sweeping university campuses from the United States and Canada to the United Kingdom. It’s even taken hold in the State Department. On March 16, Ira

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AIPAC’s Calling, But Will Bernie Sanders Answer?

Unlike Clinton, Sanders faces a dilemma: speak to AIPAC in benign platitudes which will alienate the least number of its supporters while falling far short of his own progressive values, or turn his back on the invitation and earn the enduring wrath of the Israel lobby?

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein
Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at a campaign rally at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Tuesday, March 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)

SEATTLE --- (Analysis) The annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference opens on March 20 in Washington, and a recent petition campaign is calling on one particular candidate to skip the event, which more or less requires candidates to kowtow to the Israel lobby -- something other candidates have proven eager to do. This

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Haaretz Columnists Propose Genocide In Lebanon, Promote Right of ‘Artists’ To Rape Young Girls ‘For Their Art’

Haaretz has been described as Israel’s ‘most important liberal institution,’ but recent opinion columns clearly demonstrate there’s something more nefarious between its pages.

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein
This was Haaretz's original headline for the Etzioni article

SEATTLE --- (ANALYSIS) Haaretz is famed in many circles as Israel’s leading liberal newspaper. In 2011, the New Yorker’s managing editor, David Remnick, deemed it “easily the most liberal newspaper in Israel and arguably the most important liberal institution in a country that has moved inexorably to the right in the past decade.” The newspaper

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Roseanne Barr, Who Ridiculed Holocaust, Headlines Israeli Anti-BDS Conference

During her two-week visit to Israel, she plans to travel around the country “collecting material which will help her in her hasbara efforts in Hollywood for Israel and against BDS

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein

  Ex-Hollywood TV star Roseanne Barr, who’s undergone a conversion from being a rabid anti-Zionist to an Arab-hating Israel supporter will perform at an Israeli anti-BDS conference in March.  She’s been invited to Israel by the Israel advocacy group, StandWithUs (SWU), for whom she’s headlining a fundraising gala at Temple Bnai Abraham

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Israel Issues New Directive To Its ‘Free Press’: ‘Censorship: The Freedom To Speak Responsibly!’

As Israel expands the scope of what might be considered a ‘security matter,’ the country’s bloggers and social media activists must now seek approval to publish almost anything any self-respecting journalist would hope to cover in a true democratic state.

Richard Silverstein
By Richard Silverstein
Israeli's read the morning paper on Ben Yehuda Street. Israel’s new military censor, Col. Ariella Ben Avraham, has mandated expanded monitoring and censorship of Israeli media, requiring social media activists and bloggers to have 'security related content' vetted by the government.

SEATTLE --- Israel’s new military censor, Col. Ariella Ben Avraham, has greatly expanded the scope of her brief in monitoring Israeli media by requiring social media activists and bloggers to submit “security-related material” for approval prior to posting. In the past, the Israeli Defense Forces censors have confined themselves to overseeing

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