Israeli writer Etgar Keret – who I interviewed in Indonesia last year and found him engaging, argumentative, passionate and funny – travels to Italy and asks Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu about the Zionist state’s plans for peace with the Palestinians. Suffice to say, there is no plan: The briefing is already drawing to a close…
Showing all posts in June 2019
Understanding cyber warfare from the other side
The US is unsurprisingly worried about cyber attacks from hackers, Russia, China or even a friendly nation. The future of warfare may well be fought in a different space altogether. But this report proves how unprepared America is for the inevitable attempts to understand its inner workings. The problem lies in how hackers are viewed.…
Maybe Rupert himself had his phone tapped?
When satire is dead: Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News International and former editor of The Sun, has been shown evidence suggesting her phone was hacked more than 20 times by a private investigator employed by another Rupert Murdoch title, it emerged last night. News International confirmed the 43-year-old media executive met detectives last…
Zionist leader worries that democracy in Israel/Palestine is bad thing
Hear the fear in the words of somebody who knows that true equality for Jews and Palestinians will mean the end of Jewish privilege. We should welcome it: President Shimon Peres is concerned that Israel might become a binational state, in which case, he warned, it would cease to exist as a Jewish state. “I’m…
Some question and answers about responsibility of writers
Following my essay in the latest edition of literary journal Overland on cultural boycotts, politics, Palestine and Sri Lanka, the magazine interviewed me on various matters: Passionate and outspoken about Israel/Palestine, among other things, Antony Loewenstein is a freelance independent journalist based in Sydney. Author of My Israel Question and The Blogging Revolution, he is…
How much has really changed since Mubarak left?
Australian independent journalist Austin Mackell argues on RT that the military government still holds thousands of political prisoners:
On literary boycotts, Palestine, Sri Lanka and the politics of dissent
My following essay appears in the latest edition of literary journal Overland (a shorter version is published on ABC online): ”˜For thirty years the country [Sri Lanka] went through a kind of hell and endured untold economic and cultural deprivation. Now, with things looking up, we need all the friendly input we can get from…
US “intelligence” acknowledge that Arab Spring has left them clueless
A rather startling Newsweek feature that shows just how shallow the US understanding of the Middle East has been for decades. Working with tyrants and torturers and murderers, in the name of fighting “terrorism”, has meant that the overthrow of such figures in the last six months has resulted in US eyes and ears becoming…
Sri Lanka is a heart of darkness where murder is encouraged
Today’s Guardian editorial is a powerful indictment against any government, journalist or official who views Colombo as a model when fighting “terrorism”. The UN is also complicit. The take-away message is that murdering civilians during wars (something many nations are very good at, including the US, Israel, Congo and a host of others) must be…
What privatised war does to ethics; render them irrelevant
Evidence for the prosecution: In December 2008, South Asian workers, two thousand miles or more from their homes, staged a protest on the outskirts of Baghdad. The reason: Up to 1,000 of them had been confined in a windowless warehouse and other dismal living quarters without money or work for as long as three months.…