While the Israeli army and air force break the Geneva Convention on a daily basis in Lebanon, Western tactics are unsurprisingly failing: The ferocity of Israel’s onslaught in southern Lebanon and Hizbullah’s stubborn battles against Israeli ground forces may be working in the militant group’s favour. “They want to shatter the myth of Israeli invincibility,”…
Showing all posts in June 2019
Just asking some questions
The following review appears in today’s Australian newspaper: Scrutinising the conduct of the modern Israeli state raises uncomfortable but necessary questions, writes Peter Rodgers My Israel Question By Antony Loewenstein Melbourne University Press, 340pp, $32.95 There is no better illustration of the cancerous nature of much discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than federal Labor MP…
A war without end
Robert Fisk, The Independent, July 27: Is it possible – is it conceivable – that Israel is losing its war in Lebanon? From this hill village in the south of the country, I am watching the clouds of brown and black smoke rising from its latest disaster in the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil: up…
An opportunity
In late 2005, I was appointed to Macquarie University’s Centre for Middle East and North African Studies. We organised the Robert Fisk lecture in early 2006, the largest event ever held on campus. We are currently planning a conference in early December, titled “The Journalist and Islam: competing agendas, political correctness and the war on…
The workers unite
Workers in Venezuela get assistance from a master: In his classic 1936 film, “Modern Times,” Charlie Chaplin has to work so fast tightening bolts in a steel factory that he finally goes crazy. In one scene that has become a metaphor for labour exploitation, the Little Tramp is run through the factory’s enormous gears. For…
War crimes
The following letter appears in this week’s Australian Jewish News: I write to express my disgust at the destruction of Lebanon by Israel’s armed forces. This is a war crime. Let us look at the chain of events. For 16 months, the Hamas Government in Gaza maintained a cease-fire, with constant provocation from Israel, economic…
Replacing one hatred for another
The following letter appears in today’s Australian newspaper: Mark Steyn’s article (“If only they had refused to indulge Arafat“, Opinion, 26/7) demonstrates that anti-semitism has not disappeared from the mindset of sections of the Right – it has simply transformed into a malignant bigotry against Muslim Arabs. Of course, not all the features of classic…