Seth Mandel

New York

Senior Editor at Commentary Magazine

Dad to the six Irishest Jewish kids on earth. Senior Editor @Commentary Magazine. @bethanyshondark is my better half. [email protected]

Articles

Seeing Through the Hamasnik Facade

12 hours ago | commentary.org | Seth Mandel

A leading U.S. pro-Palestinian organization may finally be forced to reveal how thin the line is that separates Hamas from some of its boisterous advocates in the West. The group is American Muslims for Palestine, and a federal judge in Virginia has ruled that it must turn over key financial documents requested by Virginia's attorney general, Jason Miyares. AMP has come under investigation and been the target of several lawsuits since Oct.
A Survivor Faces the Cowards

16 hours ago | commentary.org | Seth Mandel

Ever since Oct. 7, I have strangely looked forward to the annual Eurovision contest. Not for the music, really. Mostly I look forward to the arrival of the Israeli contestant, a rare moment to glimpse an actually brave artist in the sea of "pick-me" conformism that passes for a music scene today.
Why Qatar Doesn't Pass the 'Tito Test'

1 day ago | commentary.org | Seth Mandel

During the early years of the Cold War, Marshal Josip Broz Tito was an unlikely ally for Harry Truman and the U.S.-led anti-Communist West. Tito came to power in Yugoslavia as a Communist, of course, and acted like it: collective farms, paranoid show trials, and other features of Communist dictatorships came to Yugoslavia after World War II. But Tito wanted to be more than a mere puppet of Moscow, and Truman exploited the crack in the Soviet sphere.
The Most Revolting Case of Anti-Zionist Derangement Yet

1 day ago | commentary.org | Seth Mandel

The Rule of Scapegoats: Someone's reason for needing a scapegoat is just as newsworthy as his desperate actions to bring someone else down. And that appears to be the case yet again, this time with Karim Khan. Khan is the lead prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, a supra-national NGO on steroids that identifies as a judicial body.
The Qatari-Led World Order

2 days ago | commentary.org | Seth Mandel

Let it never be said that the president is a cheap date. On the heels of reports that Donald Trump-sorry, the "United States Air Force"-will be gifted a new presidential airplane from the Qataris, American-born Edan Alexander was released from his captivity in a Hamas dungeon funded and enabled by Qatar. All of this coincides with Trump's visit this week to the Gulf, the goal of which is "to return home with $1 trillion worth of deals and investment pledges," according to Axios.
Trump's Mideast Shifts Leave Everyone Guessing

5 days ago | commentary.org | Seth Mandel

Is the Trump administration leaving Israel behind? That's the impression one gets from recent news stories. Steve Witkoff, the president's special envoy to the whole entire world, has been leaking to media and then commenting on his own leaks to the media. It's a monologue billed as a conversation. And it has some Israelis worried.
Columbia Exposes the 'Academic Freedom' Hypocrites

6 days ago | commentary.org | Seth Mandel

There wasn't much learning going on at Columbia yesterday, but the school provided an important lesson in hypocrisy for those paying attention. A key talking point from defenders of the universities against the Trump administration's enforcement of civil-rights law has been: If the schools crack down on pro-Hamas protesters at the government's behest, it will destroy academic freedom as we know it.
Pulitzer's Ignoble Prize

6 days ago | commentary.org | Seth Mandel

The Hamas attacks of Oct. 7 accelerated one of many dispiriting trends in American public life: the transformation of major institutions from merely biased to something approaching evil. The latest example is the vaunted Pulitzer Prizes. Pulitzer had long ago become a political rather than journalistic institution, and perhaps it always was-though it was better at hiding it at some point in the past.
Dana Nessel, Rashida Tlaib, and a Very Dangerous Precedent

1 week ago | commentary.org | Seth Mandel

It has become common for district and state attorneys to go easy on pro-Hamas demonstrators who have arguably crossed the line into lawlessness. These officials are usually progressives who are sympathetic to the protesters and therefore aren't seeking to deter the acts of trespassing or vandalism (or worse) in the future. So going easy on campus Hamasniks isn't likely to draw much shock anymore.
The Destruction of History for a Lie That No One Believes

1 week ago | commentary.org | Seth Mandel

There is a war on history so ruthless and pervasive that I should say up front that there is, believe it or not, a silver lining. Two, actually. But first, the bleak part. When it comes to Jewish historical sites in the holy land, even your most "moderate" academic seems to turn into ISIS-a destructive force seeking a new and permanent dark age. But because academic archaeological journals aren't exactly the stuff of ratings, we don't hear about it very much unless we go looking for it.