Biden’s messaging tends to be complex rather than simple, bellicose, and repetitive… But the problem isn’t just Biden’s style; it’s what he’s saying. Biden’s focus on the complexity of things, his inherent pragmatism, can come off as overly neutral or even a bit of a downer.

Biden and the Democrats should understand that good deeds do not trickle down to people, but must be sold to them. People are not grateful beneficiaries; they are voters who respond to strong political messages.

In short, Biden could learn from FDR and maybe even from Donald Trump.

After a honeymoon of slightly positive coverage in the first three months of the year, Biden’s press for the past four months has been as bad as — and for a time worse than — the coverage Trump received for the same four months of 2020.

The Health Ministry has been preventing the publication of a draft report that [.] reveals the involvement of doctors, nurses and caregivers in taking the children and acting as middlemen in their adoptions, sometimes in exchange for money.

In many cases, the families were told their child had died, even though they didn’t see the body or a place of burial and or receive a death certificate. Some came to believe the children were, in fact, kidnapped and adopted by Ashkenazi families, both in Israel and abroad.

Strategically, to continue to cover this up is a dumb decision. What the government is doing now is a bit too little too late. The first thing we want is acknowledgement from the state.

Ms. Psaki’s weariness is understandable. Everyone is tired and frustrated. But the United States should consider something new.

Her sarcasm revealed a dismal truth: if America is no longer unique in struggling through the pandemic, adequate testing remains in woefully short supply.

The problem, then and now, is that reality doesn’t often behave like a simulation, and that widespread, rapid COVID testing—at least as it’s been practiced in Germany, the U.K., and other countries—hasn’t really quashed anything.

Putin understands the domestic political benefits that he gains from an aggressive nationalistic and expansionist agenda, but he also dreams of restoring Russia as a world power.

An independent Ukraine is for Vladimir Putin what the Treaty of Versailles was for Hitler —a historical injustice imposed on a defeated nation at its moment of greatest weakness, to be reversed as soon as circumstances allow.

Putin’s actions and intentions may be deliberately wrapped in a fog, but his track record is clear. If he’s allowed to advance his goals without serious consequences, he will continue to escalate his foreign policy of bullying and intimidation.

Now the moral burden shifts to the athletes themselves — just as it did in 1936… Whatever one thinks of the merits of a particular issue or a particular type of protest, athletes who speak out are advancing an important principle: Social justice should not stop at the border.

Finally, somebody has the guts to stand up to China and its propaganda fest.

By announcing a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics on Monday, the United States is casting an inescapable shadow over what President Xi Jinping planned as a celebration of China’s wealth, power and status as a global heavyweight.

With the Games two months away and the host country’s ugly record on human rights well in view once again, more needs to be done to send China a message that it operates outside the bounds of acceptable behavior.

Zabar’s is running low. Tompkins Square Bagels is down to sticks. Pick-a-Bagel has only a few days’ supply left… a schmear shortage is threatening one of the most treasured local delicacies: a fresh bagel with cream cheese.

I floated the idea of using less schmear at all the bagel stores I visited and was met with resounding pushback.

“Imagine if Katz’s didn’t serve a 6-inch-thick pastrami sandwich,” Russo said. “It wouldn’t be Katz’s.”

Online, I discovered that the cream cheese is not an old-world Jewish creation but rather a modern product developed from previous recipes in the 1870s by an upstate New York gentile named William Lawrence.