Esoteric Brezhnevism

  The release of Rob Reiner’s 1989 romantic comedy hit When Harry Met Sally made a star of pianist Harry Connick, Jr., who contributed youthful renditions of several old jazz standards to the soundtrack. Outside of New Orleans, however, comparatively few are familiar with Harry Connick, Sr., the corrupt Orleans Parish District Attorney who made his son’s music career possible. The elder Connick, who operated two record stores [1] with his Jewish wife, Anita Levy [2], also a lawyer, achieved some prominence as a US attorney, assisting Lyndon Johnson’s Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach in his efforts to desegregate America’s schools [3] and prosecute federal civil rights violation cases against local authorities [4]. Connick’s superior had been a key party to the cover-up of the JFK assassination. As Deputy Attorney General at the time, Katzenbach had written a memo directing that the “public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin; that he did not have confederates who ...

  Gideon Levy Israeli journalist Gideon Levy points out that, “in Hebrew, ‘Gaza’, pronounced ‘Aza, is short for Azazel, which is associated with hell. Of the multitude of curses hurled at me these days from every street corner, ‘Go to hell/Gaza’ is among the gentler ones.” [1] Levy’s recent book The Killing of Gaza: Reports on a Catastrophe collects a selection of his Haaretz columns spanning the years 2014-2024 and represents the most liberal perspective tolerated in the Jewish state. The columns present a panoramic and surprisingly frank set of vignettes illustrating the lives of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and in Israeli prisons, as in the following passage relating the mistreatment of Hamas members: The beatings became a daily affair. Occasionally the guards demanded of prisoners that they kiss an Israeli flag and declaim, “Am Yisrael chai” – “The people of Israel live!” They were also ordered to curse the prophet Mohammed. The usual call to prayer in the cells w...