Let’s hope Obama treats this Israeli attempt to indefinitely postpone any negotiations with the Palestinians with the contempt it deserves. If not, a third intifada is far from unlikely: The new Israeli government will not move ahead on the core issues of peace talks with the Palestinians until it sees progress in U.S. efforts to…
Showing all posts tagged human rights
Israel to bomb Iran? Don’t believe the hype
My latest column for New Matilda is about the relationship between Israel and Iran and the prospects for war: The Israel lobby want to bomb Iran, but calmer heads can see plenty of reasons not to. This time the lobby may not get what it wants, writes Antony Loewenstein Roger Cohen, a columnist for the…
The Durban circus continues
The UN’s anti-racism conference continues in Geneva but it’s hard to see how this event will achieve anything other than an even greater split between the West and the rest. The Australian media has covered the event in a fairly predictable way (and only the public, through letter writing, has allowed the debate to flourish).…
When will anybody even acknowledge Palestinians?
Murdoch’s Australian editorialises today on the Durban II conference and predictably focuses on the rantings of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (rather than even acknowledging the issue of Palestinian suffering): Australia was right to have no part of Durban II Before its second conference on racism opened in Geneva, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged the UN’s reputation was…
Iran, apartheid, Zionism and other such matters
A fascinating collection of letters in today’s Melbourne Age newspaper, proving once again that debate about Israel/Palestine is far more robust in the public than the mainstream media usually allows: The most frustrating thing about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s address to the UN anti-racism conference (The Age, 21/4) — aside from his flagrant anti-Semitism — is the…
Leave the Nazis dead and buried
I generally agree with the comments by Muzzlewatch about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech in Geneva. Much of the talk was actually historically accurate and presented uncomfortable truths for the West and Israel in particular, but his Holocaust denial, aggression and defending of human rights was all a sick joke when one knows the reality…
We suffered with many others
Muzzlewatch, currently in Geneva for Durban II, laments how the Jewish Holocaust is being abused by those who should know better: We must make space for all the genocides and all the traumas. The profound multi-generational fractures, the almost genetic fear of being hunted, the damage done to us individually and collectively, the resilience and…
Engagement is important
An interesting editorial in today’s Sydney Morning Herald on the Durban II conference (refreshingly challenging the Zionist lobby to stop whinging so much and chasing shadows): When the nearly 200 nations of the world get down to try to hammer out a common position on human rights, you can expect a fair amount of hypocrisy…
Not wanting to kill Arabs
This is curious. Israeli-made videos warning citizens not to evade military service, with India as a backdrop: The Indian blogger comments: The funny thing is that they’re worried about explaining themselves to Europeans while in India and leave Indians entirely out of the picture (literally, I think those are non-Indian actors playing the waiters). In…
Durban II, the how, why and who
The farce currently taking place in Geneva, known as Durban II, has already thrown up a veritable collection of freaks, distractions, nutty celebrities (what the hell is Angelina Jolie’s dad, Jon Voight, doing there?) and agendas. What follows is a small selection of the issues raised (and yet more evidence that the Western world, led…