• Today is March 14, and yesterday supporters of Lebanon’s March 14 movement rallied to supported outsed ex-prime minister Saad Hariri and to demand that Hezbollah give up its weapons. [AP/NYT]
• Alan Gross, the 61-year-old American contractor who was helping Cuba’s Jewish community and was accused of being a spy, was sentenced to 15 years in jail over the weekend. The United States condemned the punishment. [JTA]
• Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that if Israel didn’t quickly move to help establish a Palestinian state, it would face “a diplomatic tsunami.” Holy innapropriate metaphors, Batman! [Haaretz]
• The sides are gearing up in Egypt for next Saturday’s constitutional referendum. Hosni Mubarak’s old party and the Muslim Brotherhood support the proposed reforms; most of the other parties do not. [NYT]
• Foreign policy expert Anne-Marie Slaughter argues that the U.S. should maneuver the Security Council into authorizing a no-fly zone over Libya—something which the Arab League endorsed over the weekend. [NYT]
• Tawfik Toubi, 88, the last surviving member of Israel’s first parliament, died. Somehow it’s fitting that he was also the founder of the Israeli Communist Party. [AP/Vos Iz Neias?]
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.