Martin Luther King

2019
Kramer, Martin. “Where MLK Really Stood on Israel and the Palestinians.” Mosaic Magazine, 2019, March 13. Web originalAbstract
Why did MLK not condemn Israel’s actions in the twenty years between 1948 and 1968, at a time when Israel stood repeatedly in the dock? And why didn’t he say anything about the Palestinian “plight,” especially as he got a high-level tutorial on the subject during a visit to East Jerusalem in 1959? An exploration of possible influences, from Reinhold Neibuhr to King's own personal experience.
Where MLK Really Stood on Israel and the Palestinians (pdf)
2016
Kramer, Martin. “In the Words of Martin Luther King.” In The War on Error: Israel, Islam, and the Middle East, 254-67. New Brunswick, NJ and London: Transaction Publishers, 2016.Abstract

“When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism!” Martin Luther King was supposed to have said this at a dinner party in Cambridge, Massachusetts, shortly before his death. Critics claimed he could not have said this because he could not be placed in Cambridge at the time. They thus insinuated that the quote must have been invented by Harvard’s Seymour Martin Lipset, who reported it. The author relies on King’s papers to establish a firm address, host, date, and time for the dinner. But he also bring evidence (from FBI wiretaps) of King’s profound ambivalence about Israel’s 1967 victory. King supported Israel’s right to exist, but he thought Israel would have to disgorge its military conquests.

In the Words of Martin Luther King (pdf)
Amalgamates and revises three posts from Kramer's blog Sandbox.