• Two South Carolina Republican officials defended U.S. Senator Jim DeMint against the accusation that he hasn’t directed enough money to public projects: “There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies.… DeMint is watching our nation’s pennies.” [JTA]
• Israeli P.M. Benjamin Netanyahu will convene his security cabinet to discuss how to handle the Goldstone Report; some say an internal investigation into its findings would be a “way to remove the threat of Israel being hauled before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.” [JPost]
• A former NASA scientist who helped discover evidence of water on the moon has been arrested for agreeing to give secrets to an FBI agent passing as Israeli intelligence. [Haaretz]
• A cooperative of Palestinian olive farmers is learning to make use of the fact that “The same olives whose oil sells for a few dollars a quart locally can be … put in a bottle with an organic and fair-trade certified label, and sold for upwards of $50 a quart at retail stores in the United States.” [WP]
Click here for access to comments
COMMENTING CHARGES
Daily rate: $2
Monthly rate: $18
Yearly rate: $180
WAIT, WHY DO I HAVE TO PAY TO COMMENT?
Tablet is committed to bringing you the best, smartest, most enlightening and entertaining reporting and writing on Jewish life, all free of charge. We take pride in our community of readers, and are thrilled that you choose to engage with us in a way that is both thoughtful and thought-provoking. But the Internet, for all of its wonders, poses challenges to civilized and constructive discussion, allowing vocal—and, often, anonymous—minorities to drag it down with invective (and worse). Starting today, then, we are asking people who'd like to post comments on the site to pay a nominal fee—less a paywall than a gesture of your own commitment to the cause of great conversation. All proceeds go to helping us bring you the ambitious journalism that brought you here in the first place.
I NEED TO BE HEARD! BUT I DONT WANT TO PAY.
Readers can still interact with us free of charge via Facebook, Twitter, and our other social media channels, or write to us at letters@tabletmag.com. Each week, we’ll select the best letters and publish them in a new letters to the editor feature on the Scroll.
We hope this new largely symbolic measure will help us create a more pleasant and cultivated environment for all of our readers, and, as always, we thank you deeply for your support.