The reality on the ground (via the Guardian): The number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank grew by more than 15,000 in the past year to reach a total that exceeds 350,000 for the first time and has almost doubled in the past 12 years. Figures from… Israel‘s population registry show a 4.5% increase in…
Showing all posts in June 2019
Israeli racism and inequality in its DNA
My following article appears in Lebanon’s Al Akhbar: “Moshe was simply not willing for the State of Israel to run him over anymore.” Moshe Silman, a son of Holocaust survivors, was an Israeli man who died last week after suffering second and third-degree burns on 94 percent of his body. In an Israeli first, a…
The Wire radio on illegal Israeli colonies
I was interviewed yesterday by the daily current affairs show, The Wire, talking about Israel’s recently released Levy report on settlements. Illegality? What illegality? There’s some classic delusional but typical Zionist lobbying in the piece, by Vic Alhadeff, saying the report is in fact good for peace. Seriously, does the Israel lobby receive its daily…
Deep inside Syrian rebel territory
In a time of war, great journalists are rare. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad is a truly unique reporter. His recent dispatches from deep inside Yemen, including Al-Qaeda territory, were remarkable. Now he’s inside Syria, alongside rebel forces (his photos are here). Read him to understand what is happening inside a civil war: The column of eight rebel…
How to interview an alleged war criminal part 1
Look and learn journalists, admiring the powerful isn’t how it’s done. Here’s an Irish interviewer talking to George W. Bush in 2006: Today, America gives the world Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist who loves to dish out American fire power and takes no responsibility when it causes chaos.
An alternative view from Damascus on a war we barely understand
French journalist Thierry Meyssan, with a controversial record, has sent the following dispatch from Damascus, in French, and below is a rough translation from a French friend of mine. One more piece of the exceedingly complex Syrian puzzle: Damas, the volcano’s been extinguished This is 23 July at 7 pm and we are standing on…
Why profit-making prisons distort justice
The outrage of vulture capitalism in practice (via the American Constitution Society): The failed “war on drugs” certainly helped the proliferation of for-profit prisons, but the federal government’s increasing reliance on many of the same companies to detain undocumented immigrants and others awaiting court resolutions is not only furthering private prison profits but the need…
News flash; Victorian government, police and Zionist lobby upset that public have right to oppose Israel
Following this week’s decision in a Victorian magistrate’s court that found protestors had the right to oppose Israeli chocolate shop Max Brenner in public, now comes the inevitable whinging from the political elites. It’s not fair, they say, that citizens can speak out against wonderful democratic Israel. It’s unfair that people say nasty things about…
Breaking news; CIA is fairly clueless in Syria (and that’s fine, by the way)
This Washington Post story is written with sadness. If only the CIA had any clue about the reality inside Syria, it implies, they could do what they do in many nations around the world and meddle in internal affairs: Sixteen months into… the uprising in Syria, the United States is struggling to develop a clear understanding…
New Yorker editor on writing profiles
David Remnick, just out with this stunning piece on Bruce Springsteen, talks about profile writing: STORYBOARD: The Art of the Profile with David Remnick of ‘The New Yorker’ from Tumblr on Vimeo.