Antony Loewenstein

It’s to Iran the West should look for secure energy.

Leading American dissident historian Norman Finkelstein talks to Haaretz after being refused entry to Israel due to “suspicions involving hostile elements in Lebanon”:

I did my best to provide absolutely candid and comprehensive answers to all the questions put to me. I am confident that I have nothing to hide. Apart from my political views, and the supporting scholarship, there isn’t much more to say for myself: alas, no suicide missions or secret rendezvous with terrorist organizations. I’ve always supported a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. I’m not an enemy of Israel.

Arresting a blogger in Singapore for calling somebody a “stupid Malay.”

Welcome to the land of thought crimes.

The Jewish state creates a perfect PR disaster:

The US political author and critic of Israel Norman Finkelstein was denied entry to the Jewish state on Friday, his lawyer said.

Finkelstein landed at Ben Gurion international airport near Tel Aviv in the early morning and was told by a representative of the ministry of interior that he would not be allowed into the country on ‘security’ grounds, attorney Michael Sfard told dpa.

‘This usually means a 10-year ban on entry,’ Sfard added.

How can this achieve anything other than positive spin for Finkelstein and negative press for Israel?

The “inspiring” Jewish state:

Israel’s decision to restrict its Eurovision entrants to those who served in its armed forces smacks of racism – and must not be condoned.

Of course, such bigotry will be defended by hardline Zionists who have no problem with building a nation of Jews only (and excluding the rest.) Some democracy.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s repression and paranoia continues to worsen:

Iranian authorities have blocked access to several websites and blogs of women’s rights advocates and journalists critical of the government, a press report said on Tuesday.

The move follows a new directive sent out by a committee tasked with identifying illegal websites to Internet service providers, the reformist Etemad Melli newspaper said without giving a source.

“There seems to be a tougher approach this time as some sites and weblogs belonging to women’s rights and human rights campaigners, writers critical of the government and well-known journalists” have been singled out, it said.

Clearly not satisfied with assisting the Chinese regime with its internet repression, Google now provides information to Indian authorities:

…a 22 year-old Indian IT worker has been charged under two sections of the Indian Penal Code for posting obscene content online, comments made about political leader Sonia Gandhi, and now faces up to five years in prison.

The seeming willingness to please the powers that be probably shouldn’t surprise us, but it’s an ominous development:

Money always talks the loudest language of all.

US Official: Cluster Bomb Ban Could Hurt ‘Cooperation’ and ‘Humanitarian Work’.

YouTube announces a Citizen News channel, specifically designed to bolster the already-growing online community of citizen journalists reporting from the far corners of the globe. Professional reporters need not apply:

What the hell is wrong with American Jews?

Popular U.S. clothing store Urban Outfitters has halted sales of a T-shirt apparently supporting Palestinian violence that has sparked outrage in the American Jewish community.

The T-shirt, created by Los Angeles-based designer “Fashion Jive,” depicts a young Palestinian boy carrying an AK-47 assault rifle, over the word “Victimized.” The T-shirt also shows the Palestinian flag, a map of the Palestinian territories and a small white dove. The item sold online for $25.

Some Jews clearly find this offensive. So therefore the clothing should be blocked from distribution? The rush to always try and censor opinions the Zionist lobby doesn’t like is a particularly ugly trait.

When I was in Israel many years ago I bought a t-shirt featuring an image of an F-16 fighter with the words, “America, Don’t Worry, Israel is Behind You.” Palestinians could rightly be upset with an item that celebrates the violence perpetrated against them, but nobody called for its censorship (the item of clothing, bought as a joke, is in orange, the colour of the messianic settler movement.)

It’s really time that Jews understood that democracies feature thoughts and items that may offend some viewers.

Headline on a leading conservative, American website on May 20:

Iranians Would Welcome Airstrikes, Sources Say.

The Iranian people will supposedly welcome being attacked by Freedom Bombs and feel liberated just like the Iraqis.

China is a repressive regime. Clearly it now makes sense, in a post 9/11 world where the US engages in torture of its own, to join forces with the Communists:

U.S. military personnel at Guantanamo Bay allegedly softened up detainees at the request of Chinese intelligence officials who had come to the island facility to interrogate the men — or they allowed the Chinese to dole out the treatment themselves, according to claims in a new government report.

Buried in a Department of Justice report released Tuesday are new allegations about a 2002 arrangement between the United States and China, which allowed Chinese intelligence to visit Guantanamo and interrogate Chinese Uighurs held there.

According to the report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine, an FBI agent reported a detainee belonging to China’s ethnic Uighur minority and a Uighur translator told him Uighur detainees were kept awake for long periods, deprived of food and forced to endure cold for hours on end, just prior to questioning by Chinese interrogators.

Susan Manning, a lawyer who represents several Uighurs still held at Guantanamo, said Tuesday the allegations are all too familiar.

U.S. personnel “are engaging in abusive tactics on behalf of the Chinese,” she said Tuesday. When Uighur detainees refused to talk to Chinese interrogators in 2002, U.S. military personnel put them in solitary confinement as punishment, she said.

“Why are we doing China’s dirty work?” Manning said. “Surely we’re better than that.”

Actually, today’s America is not, but rather a torturing, murdering state placing itself above the law.